BRAIN FREEEEEZE

It was a boiling Texan night. I drove up to the gas station and filled up gas. Since I paid for it by using my card, there was no need for me to go inside the 7-11 store. I closed the door of my Mercury Villager, and I was just about to turn the key to rev up my ride, when I saw it through the driver side window. It was a picture of a slurpee. It was a long time since I last had one. Many fond childhood memories flooded back.

A bunch of Muslim kids from the Madinah Masjid-Danforth Ave. (a.k.a. Greek Town) hood would get together to play hockey every afternoon in the hot Toronto summer days. Immediately after the game, we would rush to the local 7-11 store and run to the Slurpee machine. We would let the machine run for a bit and then fill up the slurpee cups. Oh the sensational cooling feeling of that Slurpee was better than the adrenalin rush of hockey game itself!…….

The flashing of my childhood days infront of my eyes made me change my decision. I pulled the key out and closed the door silently behind me. I realized that I had started drooling….I was walking in a trance. Love is blinding. Oblivious to the surroundings around me, I walked up to the 7-11 store door, opened it ever so quickly and quickly made my way to the Slurpee machine. Old habits die hard. I turned the handle and let it run for a few seconds and filled up my cup with three different layers after slightly banging it a couple of times to maximize my slurpage. I slurped it……and in less than a second,….. I experienced a brain freeze. I felt the first slurp going down my parched esophagus. I felt it cooling down my stomach. I felt the coolness running around every fiber of my body. For a second….it was just me and my slurpee….and no one else…..One of life’s finest pleasures…Walked up to the cashier, paid for it and walked over to my van.

And the (cowboy) Maulana, belovedly clutching his slurpee, galloped away into the darkness of the hot, dark, and muggy Texan midnight……..