am I not allowed?

sitting in a restaurant alone

I eat alone, a lot. I work for myself for one, and most the time it is just silly to go home, so I eat in my car. Or solo, in a restaurant. Today it happened to be a big food chain. I order a wrap. I sit down, I spread out my cutlery. A large family proceeds to fill up the booth beside me. Kid, really, could you stop staring at me? I am not a freak nor an animal in the zoo. Meanwhile gray hair walks towards me like he is going to say something. Either I "have one of those faces" or he knows me and I can't remember him. That happens a lot with me. I can tell two Schnauzers from the same litter apart, but people confound me. It would be a lot less hassle if we all wore name tags, like in that Seinfeld episode ... but seriously, now Grandpa and three kids are whispering and pointing. I feel my face carefully, take an extra wipe with the napkin, in case there is some salsa on my chin. The guy emptying his tray is looking me up and down. I get up to leave, feeling like every eye in the place is on me. I pray there is no toilet paper sticking out from my pants ... No wonder I usually eat in my car ....

Reviews

[Caradoc]

That's why I make it a habit to look at walls and fixtures while I'm eating at a restaurant. I was raised that it was impolite to stare. If that wasn't enough, nowadays when a man looks for too long at someone, especially a woman, or God forbid a child, they are immediately thought of as a creeper or pedophile.

So while the narrator is on the other side of the spectrum, and you have written that feeling of paranoia well, I myself feel like I'm not allowed to look at anyone. What a society that we live in; all of us so self conscious about one thing or another.

This is an interesting character piece. I'm certainly going to think of this person the next time I'm at a restaurant and happen to glance at someone.

-Cara

[Lyn Anderson]

It is weird, isn't it? People are strange beasts.