Aquisitioner’s Entry 10: Learn how to love a worm sandwich in one easy lesson
Karl doesn’t seem surprised to see me up and dressed as she comes into the hut. She looks at me with a rye smile and says, “Looks like someone is ready for adventure.”
My sails deflate a little bit, but she’s right, I’m excited and raring to go. “You said that we should leave before sunup. Thought I’d be a little more travel ready than on our journey to the island…I’m trying to impress the boss you know?” I say.
“First of all, I’m not the boss. That’s Finn! And by the way, you don’t have to try to impress me.” She pauses.
“It’s funny, guys always try to impress gals but it’s the thing most gals find least impressive.” Then she turns and looks at me directly and says, Besides, I’m already impressed.” This time she has a huge smile that shows perfect white teeth.
I’m still processing this last comment. Karl turns and keeps packing and says, “The other morning I asked Bahari to make us some sandwiches for breakfast and lunch today. I just got them from the kitchen. Can you grab a couple of canteens and that coil of rope in the corner?
You’ll want to leave your pack as empty as possible. Toss in the rope, grab your stuffocator and we should be ready to go. We can eat on the way.”
She walks past me as she makes this last comment and I notice that the left cargo pouch of her pants has been modified with a small cutout. There’s Patrick’s little head sticking out. He seems as excited as me.
“Ready.” I say.
Karl grabs her stuffocator and we head out the door and toward the jungle behind the hut. It’s still really dark but Karl goes at an amazing clip. It feels like she must have night vision. Just before we break into the jungle foliage she thrusts a sandwich in my hand.
Trying to keep up, I peel back the brown paper wrapper and take a bite. My first reaction is a strong desire to spit it immediately out. The texture is like slimy worms between 2 pieces of bread.
Karl seems to sense everything and says, “You’d better eat it. You’re gonna need your strength. Besides, I think you’ll like it if you give it a chance.”
“What is it? I ask, clearly a little disgusted.
“Oh, it’s my on special trail sandwich. Bahari thinks I’m crazy when I ask her to make them. Basically, it’s a vegetarian spaghetti sandwich. You cook the spaghetti noodles and then mix them with my secret sauce. Slather the combo between a couple of slabs of dark brown bread and its a meal for the road. If you’re a really nice guy I might share the recipe with you sometime. It’s loaded with lots of protein and iodine rich foods.
When it sits in the fridge overnight it gets a little slimy but I’ve eaten them that way so long they taste funny to me without the slime.” she says. “I think Bahari thought I was being cruel to you when I asked her to make them for both of us.”
“I think Bahari is a very smart girl!” I say with lots of sarcasm.
I continue to choke down the sandwich. One of the things I’m learning about my new line of work is that you always eat a meal when you can because you don’t know when the next one will be. I hate to admit it but by the time I finish the sandwich it was actually tasting okay.
I realize that we’ve gotten quite deep into the jungle. I still don’t know how Karl keeps her pace in the dark but she would be challenged to go any faster on one of the paved paths in Central Park.
“There are some things you need to know about the Slider snake, V.” she says.
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Quinn responds:
Posted: March 29th, 2008 at 12:20 pm →
keep it coming, i like these stories very much… very well written