On the way to Dubuque, we stopped near Des Moines for lunch among a cluster of fast food restaurants across the street from Adventureland, USA.

Sam and I wanted Taco Bell, and Amber and Bethany opted for Subway. Sam and I dropped them off at Subway and headed down to the combination Taco Bell/KFC. I ordered a double decker taco supreme and a steak gordita supreme while Sam ordered items from both the Taco Bell and KFC menus, and we returned to Subway to eat our lunch with Amber and Bethany.

Little did we know, Sam and I would be present for a pivotal moment in a young Iowa teenager’s life.

There was a blonde girl of about sixteen or seventeen who was putting the orders up. Ahead of me was a group of men in softball uniforms who were all apparently receiving incorrect items. The girl was correcting the orders (which she had filled incorrectly), slapping the plastic trays down in frustration. She clearly wanted to be anywhere but there. Judging from the conversations behind the counter, it seemed to me like she simply wasn’t paying attention. I privately speculated that things weren’t going well between her and Tony, the guy whom her KFC cap professed that she loved.

My order came up with no problem, but Sam received the wrong pieces of chicken. Where was his extra crispy? Well, they were apparently out of extra crispy. Sam accepted the pieces he got without a fuss, but this incident was apparently the last straw for the folks behind the counter.

A heavyset, middle-aged woman angrily confronted the blonde girl about the discrepancy, half-assedly apologizing to Sam for the error. Another heavyset, middle-aged woman behind the register watched the scene while trying to take more orders. I heard the blonde girl respond to the first heavy-set woman, “I’m about to go home!” I don’t know if that meant A) Her shift was about to end, so that’s why she’s inattentive or didn’t notice something, or B) She was threatening to leave. The woman, apparently her superior, shouted, “Fine, go home then, leave, go, bye bye,” and shooed the blonde girl away. The blonde girl walked out of the Taco Bell/KFC, putting her cellphone up to her ear as she climbed into her car.

It was an eventful day at the Taco Bell/KFC.