The Frostite-Z

Last night I had a dream that I was walking along the highway out on the edge of some town. And there were two fast food joints out there along the highway, the A&W and the Dairy Queen.

And then I noticed that actually there was a third fast food joint on the highway, and it was called the Frostite-Z.

And I almost would've missed the Frostite-Z, because it was standing off the highway a bit, right alongside a machine shop, and in fact it was back behind a high chainlink fence. And I looked to see if there was some way to get back behind this fence, but on first inspection I couldn't see any. And I wondered how much business this place could be getting, if you had to go back through a machine shop to get to it.

And the Frostite-Z was a small wood-frame building, scarcely 12 feet by 12, with a sign up on its sloping shingled roof: FROSTITE-Z. And there was an old wooden screen door in front, the kind that opens with the creeeeeeeek of a rusty door spring. And there were wood-framed wire window screens around the front and side, like you'd see on the windows of an old, old house.

And I looked inside the Frostite-Z, through the window screens, and it looked to me like you could only fit about three or four customers in there in front of the counter before the place would be full. And there were signs hung up inside, 7-Up, and a menu with little plastic letters pressed into a signboard back up behind the counter. And the building was lit up within by yellow light from the ceiling, like those yellow light bulbs that aren't supposed to attract insects, only you knew just to look that the Frostite-Z would have flies buzzing around inside, and a general atmosphere of dinginess, and grease on the walls.

And I was still trying to figure how to get through the chainlink fence, how to get to the Frostite-Z without going through the machine shop. And I wondered how such a greasy spoon fast-food joint could possibly stay open or make any money in such an inaccessible spot, back behind a chainlink fence where you could walk right by and almost miss that it was even there.

And then I woke up.