Day 150: 5 Minute Freewrite: Sunday - Prompt: sizzling

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I was out and about one evening by myself, I don't remember where my wife had gone off to but I was alone for dinner and looking for someplace good to eat. I saw a sign for "Western Sizzler" and since I had enjoyed eating at one of the three local restaurants in that chain for years I decided to stop in and enjoy a nice sizzling Sirloin steak right off the grill. At these restaurants, you go through a line and make your order and then pay before being escorted to a table.

Right from the start, I knew that something had changed because the floors were filthy. In all of my previous visits, all of the locations had been well kept with clean floors and bathrooms. I thought, well maybe they are just short staffed and having a bad day. But then a waitress came by for my drink order and she was not rude, but not pleasant either. Hmmm, that is two red flags and I'm starting to hear warning bells going off in my head. But I really do have my heart set on that steak so I silenced the alarm and waited for my meal.

Sometime later my steak finally arrived and it was plopped down on the table by the waitress and away she went. Okay, I thought, and no I guess I don't need anything else. Then it hit me, what is that smell? I looked around and at first, and all seemed normal, but then I cut off a piece of steak and thank goodness the smell hit my nose before it got to my mouth! I turned the steak over and I kid you not, it was green on the back side. I have a strong stomach, but the smell and the thought that I almost bit into that putrified meat made me gag. I pushed it away and with some effort managed to get the waitresses attention.

What's the problem she asked defensively? Her posture was not what you would expect from your waitress, I got the feeling that she knew exactly what was wrong and had no intention of doing anything about it. So I asked if there was a manager that I could talk to. Both the manager and the waitress came back, the manager was a tall sloppily dressed overweight fellow with a sour look on his face. Is there a problem he asked? So I told him my steak was rotten and showed it to him, do you want to smell of it I asked? Without replying to my question he just said, well what, do you want another steak? Now I was mad, it takes a lot to make me mad but the attitude of the two of them and the tone of voice that he used with me pushed me right up to my limit.

Trying to calm myself down and stay civil I looked him in the eye and said absolutely not, I no longer trust the food that you are serving and I would like a refund. We don't do refunds he said, you can eat your meal or we will cook you another steak if you are not satisfied. Just like that, he walked away without even waiting for a reply. Now if I was an evil person there are a few things that I could have done at this point, and I sat there contemplating ways that I could get even. I had thoughts of violence, that jerk deserved to have his teeth knocked out! But then my thoughts turned to asking myself what God would want for me to do, and the answer was to just get up and leave and let Him handle things for me. So that is what I did, I got up and went home to fix myself something for dinner, I no longer had any desire for steak.

The next time I drove by that restaurant it was closed, there is an all you can eat Chinese Buffet there in its place now. I don't know what happened to the waitress or that manager but I can tell you that bad behavior never produces good things. I am thankful that I have a voice of reason that will provide me with a better way to handle the wrongs that are perpetrated against me. Had I done something ugly, or worse if I had become violent and sought revenge, I would have ended up being the one who would have paid the highest price, a lot more than what I gave for a rotten steak. Sometimes it is better to do nothing if doing something means being in the wrong yourself. There was nothing right that I could do at that point, even if I had called the police I would have just wasted both their time and a lot of my own.

No matter how you look at these things, if you do bad things to others you are going to have bad things happen to you. I say that this is a spiritual law that is just as true and real as the law of gravity. Others call it Karma, whatever you call it I don't think there is much doubt that that's just the way that it is. When God instructs us to turn the other cheek it is for our own good as much as it is just the right thing to do. The last time I was in that area there was only one of those steakhouses still open and it had completely changed the way that it did business and remodeled on the inside. My wife and I tried it and very much enjoyed our meal and returned several times. It was my impression that the chain had changed hands and all but the most profitable locations had been closed down. This proves that even if you have a bad experience at one location of a chain of restaurants it doesn't mean that they are all bad. But if they are all bad then in time they are bound to be forced to make some changes or go out of business.

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**Disclaimer: I often use the freewrite prompt to tell a story instead of doing a pure freewrite, so they sometimes take longer than 5 minutes and usually have some editing. But I try to do my story straight through at one sitting without any unnecessary breaks.
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Over 20 Club Graphic by the ever so talented @fireawaymarmot and personalized for me by @snook
Old' Steem by the most wonderful @snook
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Prompt: sizzling

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