ZeegL

Dear Mr. Taco Bell

A betrayal hath befell upon me tonight. I was on my commute home from a long, arduous day at work when I received a phone call. T’was my wife calling for me, beckoning me to bring a savory meal home for her. She was ill with the crimson wave and desired only one thing: a fiesta veggie burrito. I happily obliged; it was a simple enough request and I felt my mouth watering for the exquisite texture of the delicious vegetarian burrito.

Upon arriving at the drive-thru window, I was in good spirits. The microphone of the drive-thru clerk rang into the night: “Welcome to Taco Bell. How may I help you?”

“Two fiesta veggie burritos please,” I said confidently, so sure of my choice. The order came naturally to me, like muscle memory.

“Sorry,” the clerk replied. “Those were discontinued.”

“…what?” No, that couldn’t be right. He must have misheard me. “You don’t have the fiesta veggie burrito anymore?”

“No, we don’t. Sorry. But we do have…” The clerk rattled off some new items from the ‘cravings’ menu but I couldn’t hear him over the racing in my mind. No more fiesta veggie burritos? Discontinued? Forever?

Shock ran through me. I was frazzled. Dismayed. Despite the dire situation, I needed to make a split decision. What even was there left to order?

“Uh,” I finally said. “I’ll take two bean and cheese burritos.”

Although I was safe in my car, the world felt far away. The information was too much to take in all at once. And, oh god, what was I going to tell my wife?

I called her. “Hey, babe,” I started, voice quivering. “I have some unprecedented news.”

“What happened?” She asked, concerned. Oh, her innocence. I resented that I was the messenger of this horrid news, to my wife of all people.

I took a deep breath. “Taco Bell doesn’t have the fiesta veggie burrito anymore.”

The silence was deafening. This burrito, so nutritious, filling, and delicious, ripped from our hands without a second thought. A staple of our diet. A pillar of our community… gone in an instant.

The silence spoke volumes.

“I know,” I said, finally, “We’ll find a way to get through this.”