Out-of-Body at KFC

Yesterday we stopped in a KFC to get some cold drinks and I had an out-of-body experience. I'm so used to the crowds, the noise and the pushing of Shanghai that I don't even notice it much anymore. But this time, as I was standing in the midst of the mass of shouting customers on one side of the barricade (er, service counter) and the phalanx of shouting order-takers on the other side I suddenly had a view of the chaos from a vantage point above. The sound disappeared but I could see the two opposing sides arrayed as if in battle - the red-uniformed professionals on one side and the rag-tag but energized barbarians on the other side. I was about to place a bet on the barbarians when...

the scene morphed into the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the height of a crisis sell-off. People were shouting orders and waving documents as if their lives depended on it. Sweat dripped from screaming lips, elbows swung wildly, money was tossed across counters. Then, I was brought rudely back to reality by one of the shouting lieutenants on the other side. She was screaming something about drinks. "你要...."