WHEN THINGS GO SOUTH

Chapter 8 - Black Velvet

The Redwood House is busier than a one-man band this morning. As I wait on a customer at their table, this guy walks in the door. I look up; it's like he's in slow motion, he has John Stamos hair and Richard Gere eyes, every head turns. Instantly Dolly Parton pops in my head singing, "Why'd you come in here lookin' like that when you could stop traffic in a gunny sack." This happens a lot. My thoughts often turn into lyrics at very inopportune times. As I'm trying to gain my composure, I stutter to the customer, "Can I get you a gunny sack? I-I mean a boggy dag."

I have been working as a waitress at The Redwood House for about a year. I don't mind waiting tables. Being a waitress, you learn a lot; besides just multitasking, you hear all the small-town gossip, along with every pickup line known to man. There's always that one guy who is full of them. Everyday Rusty Lee would try a different one. His first being, "Riley Blair, did you know if beauty was a crime y-you'd be iiiillegal, and I ain't never been above breaking the law," followed by a wink with a geg-geg sound like he's calling a dog. He'd leave his number on the table; needless to say, it was raked in the trash, right along with what was left of his roast beef Manhattan.

I like seeing all the locals every morning for their coffee and honey buns, or bacon and eggs, and I'm good at it, but it's not a career, and someday I will need one to better provide for Jordy and me. Though Brattleville is a beautiful little town with its restored train station, little, red-covered bridge, and a beautiful town roundabout with gorgeous trees and landscaping, there aren't many places to work in a town with three traffic lights. Brattleville has two factories, two convenience stores, two banks, a Hills Dept Store, a church on every corner, and of course, a Dollar Store.

Big news is spreading around The Redwood House this morning. There's a new factory coming to town. Our little community is buzzing. The factory will bring hundreds of jobs to our little town.

In the fall of the following year, Bacho Brakes opened its doors. The new factory brought some new faces. The Bacho factory has three shifts, and we get a lot of hungry customers for breakfast from the third shift crew. Two guys from the night shift crew come in for breakfast about twice a week. They are from Winchester doing their engineering internship at Bacho. They are both around my age.

One of them has the cutest smile I have ever seen. Every time I take his order, when he looks up and smiles, the lyrics "Black velvet in that little boy's smile" run through my head.

His smile, though, his smile has this sweet innocence, and he is unknowingly unforgettable. I'm what my Jordy Ree would call "twitterpated." I look forward to every Tuesday and Thursday morning that he stops in. He is very shy; it took many weeks for him to ever say anything more to me then, "Bacon well done, wheat toast and hash browns, thank you."

One morning the two guys from Winchester came for breakfast. I was off work that day. Sonya told me later that when the velvet-smile guy went to the bathroom, his friend asked her my name and if I had a boyfriend.

She told him I didn't. He said to her that his friend thought her friend was very pretty. To which Sonya replied, "Well, my friend thinks your friend has the cutest smile she has ever seen." They decided then and there they were going to set us up.

This morning at work, Sonya and I are like two giddy high school girls again. She found out his name was Anthony, and his friend was Bryan.

Bryan told Sonya that Anthony was going to ask me out this morning. So, they come in and order their usual. As I make my rounds with the coffee, I get a phone call in the back; it's Momma.

Jordy has a fever, and Momma thinks she may need to go to the doctor. I grab my purse and head straight to Mommas. I take Jordy to our family doctor just a block down from The Redwood House. Jordy is fine with just a slight ear infection.