Next morning, Hadley decided to have breakfast at the Greasy Spoon. The local café was neither greasy nor a hole-in-the-wall, as its name implied.
It served some of the best cooking around. But the owner, Truman Dewitt, was a jokester and thought the name was hilarious and would stick in peoples' minds.
Next to the Beauty Boutique, the Spoon was the place to haunt if you wanted to keep your ear tuned to the latest goings-on in Hope Rock County.
"Hey, Hadley," Truman said through the cubby hole in the wall where his grill and griddle were located.
"Hey, Tru. Gimme a couple scrambled, some grits and sausage, toast, and juice," Hadley said.
"Comin' right up."
***
Truman's waitress was Delta Arden. Delta had been wiping counters and taking orders at the Spoon from Day One. Hadley liked Delta, a buxom, bleached blonde with a laid-back approach to life.
You needed that, Hadley reasoned, to wait tables here.
The Spoon was about the only decent eating establishment within twenty miles. It was surprising how busy the diner was on Friday and Saturday nights. But Delta didn't seem to mind the chaos. In fact, the hotter it got in the kitchen, the more Delta seemed to blossom.
"That gal never seems to bust a sweat," one patron observed. "I've seen her sweet talk her way outta a dozen wrong orders from two dozen rednecks."
"Yeah. They outta hire that girl to be a diplomat or something. The world would be a lot better place."
"You said it."
The two old men turned their attention back to their meals, gulping them down before they got cold.
Delta had grown up dirt poor on a few acres of the poorest soil this side of the Appalachians. Any job that did not involve using a hoe in the hot summer sun was a piece of cake. The worst day at the Spoon never held a candle to the hard-scrabble life she had left behind as a young girl.
"Delta," Hadley said, "tell me when you get a break."
"It may be awhile, girlfriend," Delta said. "This place is packed."
"Figured it would be," Hadley said. "That's okay. You just keep the coffee coming, and I'll wait. I don't mind."
YOU ARE READING
Nobody's Sorry You're Dead
Mystery / ThrillerA Clean Cozy Mystery - Mountain Air and Murder Hadley Pell, a college-educated housewife and widow, is still reeling from the loss of her beloved husband five years ago. She lives in a small town in the Southern Appalachians where nothing much happe...
