Merrie Melodies by Mark Rosenblum (Appeared in the January 2010 Issue) As he spooned chicken curry from a small Tupperware bowl, Sujan Patel glanced above the portable TV that sat alongside the mini-mart cash register. He noticed, just outside his glass enclosed booth, an overweight woman struggling with gas pump number three. The music accompanying the old Loony Tunes cartoon blasting from the TV comically matched the goings on outside. Using her wide hips, the woman was trying to brace the gas hose against her car in an effort to fight off its overzealous retracting mechanism. She also found squeezing the little metal trigger on the handle difficult with just one hand and was attempting to use them both while continuing to use her hips and legs to restrain the unwieldy hose. After two minutes of comic tango, she had only managed to deposit eighteen-cents' worth of regular into her tank. Since there were no other customers, Sujan decided to walk outside to assist. He called out to the woman and asked if she would like some help. She yelled back that she was not interested in converting to Krishna, Hindu, Buddhism or anything else he was selling. Sujan turned and walked back into the mini-mart. He sat down and scooped some chicken curry into his mouth, then reached toward a panel of switches and shut off gas pump number three. As Elmer Fudd chased Bugs Bunny, Sujan watched the woman outside pointlessly continue to struggle—accompanied by the frenzied soundtrack of the Warner Brothers Studio Orchestra.
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