Fajita Sandwich

A SUDDEN BUMP ON HIS right elbow had awakened Rogelio mid-flight. Gradually gaining his consciousness back from that nap, he’d now started to get aware that he was occupying an aisle seat on his flight from Melbourne to Sydney, noticing that the flight attendants of Qantas 737-800 had been taking the airline service trolley down the aisle for refreshments. There was a delicious aroma wafting through the well-lit cabin.

“Would you like a chicken roll, Sir?” The scarved crew quickly handed him a piece of warm bread roll before he could even say ‘yes’.

“Thank you!”

Rogelio asked for an apple juice and water as he would normally do, then wore the airline complimentary headset on. ‘This Love’ from Taylor Swift’s 1989 album started playing as the aircraft was cruising smoothly 38,000 feet above sea level.

The snack was wrapped in a transparent plastic which was sweating—making the food label easier to read: Lime and Coriander/Fajitas Chicken. As Rogelio tore the packaging away, a Texan-Mexican whiff puffed out and a tiny piece of sliced Turkish bread revealed itself. Dashes of crumbs were falling on the tray table as he started biting and chewing his sandwich—almost closing his eyes while enjoying the heavenly blend of Tejano herbs, melting mozzarella cheese, pieces of chicken, onion and red capsicum bursting in his mouth! For his massive appetite, the delicious snack was relatively small!

He took a gulp of chilled apple juice.

After the fourth and final bite of fajita, he noticed a tiny piece of ground chicken caught in the plastic wrap. He lifted the empty packaging close to his mouth, quickly stuck his tongue out to drill it into wrapper and prehend the leftover. Then he noticed a dice of red capsicum stained with melted mozzarella at the bottom of the wrap—he patiently pushed it out with his thumb and index fingers and nibbled it away.

Instantly, somebody gently tapped him on his shoulder. It was his seatmate—a sophisticated woman, probably on her early fifties! She handed an unopened, warm pack of Lime and Coriander/Fajitas Chicken to Rogelio.

“You’re more than welcome to have it,” his seatmate said, smiling…

“Oh, thank you!”

Thinking that his seatmate was observing him while he was eating his snack a minute earlier, he was a bit embarrassed. He now carefully opened the pack of fajita sandwich given by his seatmate and started eating it with finesse.

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