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The Other Half
“The Other Half”
By: Veronica Salgado and Andrea Alanis
One rainy evening in the beautiful city of New York, I was hungry and decided to walk into a small sub sandwiches restaurant. I asked the employee for a six – inch BLT sandwich. The employee was a young Korean boy who informed me that it was his first day working in the establishment. As I watched him prepare my meal, I started wondering, who has the other half of my bread? Maybe it belongs to the love of my life. Impulsively, I asked the young man preparing my sandwich, “who took the other half of my bread?” Hesitating, he answered, “a man in a brown raincoat just bought a BMT sandwich.” I asked him back, “do you know where he went?” The boy told me that the man took a left and walked away. He must certainly think I’m crazy, but I was intrigued by that thought. I paid for my meal and ran down the street, hoping I would find the man who took the other half of my bread.
I looked around, but he was nowhere to be seen. I walked about 5 blocks to the direction in which the employee told me the man had left. I was about to give up, when suddenly, in the middle of a big crowd, I spotted a tall man in a brown raincoat, carrying a bag of the restaurant in which I had just bought my sandwich. Without hesitation, I started to make my way into the crowd. When I was about to reach him, I fell down. Next thing I know, my sandwich has been trampled by the walking crowd. I stood up and continued walking, hopelessly, because my mystery man was out of sight.
Nevertheless, I continued walking a couple more blocks, looking desperately through the crowd, still hoping I would spot him. After an hour or so, I realized I was hungry, sopping, and tired. I looked into my pocket, and found out that I was out of money. I turned around, and started to walk home. While I was walking, I started to think how silly it was of me to chase down the man who bought the other half of my sandwich. I was walking through a park, when suddenly, sitting on a bench, was a tall man on a brown raincoat, enjoying a sub sandwich from the same establishment where I went. This must be the man I have been chasing. I approached him, nervously, and said, abruptly, “you have the other half of my bread.” He looked confused, but smiled. I explained to him everything that I have been through this afternoon. He must have thought that I’m crazy, but instead, he shared half of his sandwich with me.
