Page 32 of Ra
“It’s a restaurant. There are many choices of foods you can try. I thought it would be a good option for you since you want to try several different things.”
“This is a wondrous place,” Ra said, wandering closer to the buffet tables.
“Do not go in there without me. I have to pay first.”
“Yes, yes. I understand,” he said absentmindedly as she stopped to pay for them both to eat lunch.
By the time she’d finished paying, put her credit card back into her wallet, her wallet in her purse, and looked around for him, he was gone. “Ra?!” she called out.
No answer.
“Ra? Where are you?!”
Then she heard it. Raised voices. Anger. “Dear god,” she mumbled as she changed direction and moved toward the disturbance.
~~~
Ra wandered between the tables, his nose in the air as he appreciated the scent of so many different foods filling the largedining room. “This is the best offering of food that I’ve ever seen,” he said, reaching out and taking several lamb meatballs off the buffet. He stood there, and ate several more before he moved down the line and chose a piece of chicken. He held it by the leg and ate it while smiling at everyone who shot him glances. Then he began to notice the other foods, the vegetables and rices. One lady went by with a plate piled high with King string beans and glazed carrots. When she paused to glare at him because he was standing there eating from the buffet rather than filling a plate and taking a seat to eat, he reached out and took several beans and a carrot off her plate. “Thank you, for your offering,” he told her regally.
“Hey! You do not eat off others’ plates! What is wrong with you?!” she demanded.
“One does not raise their voice at Ra!” he said warningly.
Several others stopped to see what the commotion was about, and Ra noticed kabobs lying across a bed of rice on a man’s plate. “That looks delicious!” he said, picking up one of the kabobs and taking a bite of it before returning it to the man’s plate.
“Don’t touch my food!” the man shouted, advancing on Ra.
“Do you know who you’re shouting at? I can remove you from…” Ra began.
“Ra! Stop it right now!” Azi scolded, inserting herself between the small group of people that had assembled to see the crazy man eating off other people’s plates and the buffet itself.
“I am merely trying all the offerings available!” Ra told her.
“The food is not an offering! It’s a buffet! And the proper way to eat it is to take a plate and put whatever you want to try on the plate, and go sit at your table to eat.”
“But I want to try more than is on a plate!”
“Then you get two plates. Or you eat one, then come back and get another.”
“What is wrong with him?!” the woman demanded angrily again.
“I’m sorry. He’s not sure how to interact in certain situations. He’s never been to a buffet before.”
“Do not apologize for me! I am Ra! They should beg my forgiveness!”
The woman looked at him with her mouth hanging open before something finally clicked in her brain. “Ah, I understand. He’s Ra,” she said, her brows raised, her head nodding firmly as she looked from Azi to the other people standing nearby and watching.
“Yes. He is Ra. Thank you so much for understanding.”
“It’s not a problem, but perhaps you could be a little more aware of his location when you take him for outings.”
“You’re right. He slipped away while I was paying. I’m so sorry for any inconvenience,” Azi said.
Ra had grown bored with the entire situation and was reaching out toward the man’s kabob once more.
“No!” Azi shouted, as she lightly slapped at his hand.
“How dare you strike me?!” he demanded, holding his hand protectively against his chest as he looked accusingly at Azi.
