Two o'clock rolls around and I feel the disappointing lull of a rainy afternoon. I'm not quite hungry, hungry, but I could eat. I don't want a third cup of coffee, I'm already addicted enough in the morning. I could really use some sugar or a snack.
So I walk down the carpeted hallway, listening to the clicking of keyboards as I go, and reach the end of the hall before the bathroom and the elevator. There it is: the office vending machine. Its selection of drinks and snacks is unparalleled and I don't have to talk to anyone about it, asking how much the prices are or feeling guilty for bringing back a bottle of Pepsi, and a bag of chips, and a Snickers bar to my desk. So far so good. I get back to my desk, without seeing anyone I want to talk to and feel a frisson of excitement before opening the Pepsi and taking a long draught of it, popping open the chips bag and adding the salty little fritters to my body, and taking a big bite of the Snickers to quell my insatiable hunger.
Now I'm ready to do some work. It takes me back to my first experience with vending machines. The school vending machine was my three o'clock haven. I'd get a bag of chips and a soda for the bus ride home, and high on the caffeine and energy, make fun of all the younger kids who had to sit in the front, yelling and screaming until the bus driver had to tell us, "Hey in the back, settle down." But I was kind to him, I always said thanks for the ride. My friends and I were kings of the bus. We sat in the very back, in the last little half-seat, so that no one could sit next to us. There was a hole in the back of that pleather seat we all put our garbage in so that by the end of the year, you could see the bumps of all the different snacks we had finished. Those were good days.
By the end of the year, when we were getting ready to leave the school and go to the middle school, I pre-emptively missed the bus and the school vending machine. But then I thought about the new bus and the new vending machines, and how they had not two, but four, and I felt a lot better.
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