Recently I was lunching at Full Moon BBQ, one of my favorite haunts here in Birmingham, Alabama.  Like many other restaurants of this type, once you pay the cashier at Full Moon, you are given a receipt with the number of your order on it.  A few minutes later, someone emerges from behind the counter to call out your number and deliver the meal to your table.  It is a simple and unexciting process.

This day, however, was an exception to the rule.

As I stood near the counter waiting for my “to go” order, one of the waitresses took a tray from the kitchen window and, proceeding in the usual manner, called out the order:

“Number 666!”

For a moment, it seemed that the restaurant was completely silent.  No one answered.  I looked around apprehensively, wondering if, in fact, the Anti-Christ liked steak fries with his pork BBQ sandwich as I did.

The waitress looked at me questioningly.  “Are you 666?”  I could feel the eyes of others upon me.

I shook my head vigorously and held up my hands.  “No, I am not.”  She moved off, holding the tray and repeating the refrain, “Number 666!” as she walked around the restaurant, but no one answered.

When she returned to the counter, I said, “It seems that the Anti-Christ has left the premises.”

A middle-aged African-American woman seated near me looked up from her stack of BBQ ribs.  She chuckled at first and then gave way to hearty laughter.

“I was watchin’ to see who was gonna claim that one!” She said.  “I noticed you were quick to disown it!”

“You’re darn right,” I said smiling.  “You don’t see the Mark of the Beast on me, do you?”  With a hand I brushed the hair back from my forehead.  She convulsed with laughter, wiping tears from her eyes with a napkin.

The waitress, unamused by our little joke, only looked at us uncomprehendingly and returned to the kitchen.

“No one claimed order 666,” she told her manager as she put the tray under a heat lamp.

And we may thank God for that.

Comments (0)

Write comment

Show/hide comment form

Name

Email

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Add Comment