Educational Experience

Part III--Chapter 29

Definitely in the home stretch! Had some transitioning to do--still do. But I think I'm about a week or so away from "The End." FINALLY! If I don't suddenly change my mind or have a big "revelation" that just has to be addressed. Here's the latest installment. With a little surprise at the end...

We staggered out of the prom on rubbery legs around...I'm not even sure what time. And then all the guys started begging to go get some food. We'd been dancing for hours since that banquet dinner. And smoking some more of that killer bud, too, toward the end, which of course always makes you crazy hungry.

So we hit the first Waffle House we ran into on the way back to town. I happen to like Waffle House. I mean, you know my background. How red my neck is. It's the redneck IHOP out our way.

And you go in there looking like we did that night, you're gonna cause a stir. But the waitresses perked up when I ordered damned near a whole menu's worth of food. One of 'em proposed to me. Little wiry thing named Loretta who had probably been slingin' hash and waiting tables since she could see over a counter high enough to ask you for your order.

She couldn't get over my eyes. Sincerely, I shook her up bad. I don't mean she was in love with me or anything, she just couldn't believe I existed on the same planet as she did. Or in Tucson, at least. That someone like me lived there. I mean, she worked at a Waffle House for Chrissake. Kid like me walks in wearin' a tux, no less--big curve ball, that was.

She came over with the menus and when I looked up at her, she sort of startled and went, "Oh, dear Lord. Lookit this boy, wouldja?"

The girls all sort of laughed and rolled their eyes.

But Loretta didn't even hear them. She didn't even give us the menus. She asked me, "Who do you take after? Them your mama's eyes?"

She had a lifetime's worth of smoking in that voice. Sort of gravelly and husky, but there was a playfulness, too. Like she'd stopped tryin'a front and was just enjoying the show now.

"Yeah, they are," I said. And I reached up for the menus just sort of to wake her up. The guy on the grill and the other waitress were staring at her like she'd gone nuts. And there were other customers, too, even at that hour. I didn't want her to get in trouble.

But just so she could play with me for a while, I decided to keep ordering stuff for everybody to try, like you do at a Chinese restaurant or something. And she would've spoon fed me if she could've. The girls kept tittering every time she smiled at me. And Victor kept elbowing me in the ribs and going, "Here comes the bride..."

But it broke my heart a little. It was like at the prom when I saw the assistant principal's wife and knew her whole life in a glance. I knew Loretta's, too. And hers was like the polar opposite of the life the AP's wife was living.

Nobody worked for her, probably. Nobody'd ever given her much of anything worth having. She had eyes like a kicked puppy. Kind that goes all berserk if you show them some kindness. After they watch you for a while, that is. To make sure you're not going to hurt them again.

I wondered if some guy with pretty eyes had hurt her 'way back when she was young. Or maybe he just died on her or something. Maybe it was even a brother or somebody like that that she loved. Not that way, okay? Jeez. I'm just saying it felt like I triggered some kind of memory.

Anyway, the kids dove into that food like they hadn't eaten in a week. It was a whole new world for them. They have these crazy things on the menu, like all the different kinds of hash browns, "scattered, smothered and covered" is how they explain it. You can have them covered in chili or gravy, with mushrooms, ham, jalapenos, you name it. They decided they liked them with melted cheese and jalapenos, most. Nacho potatoes, they named them.