Renewal; A Tale of Katrina's Kitchen

After Breakfast

     "How was that breakfast, sweetie?" Katie had just handed the grill to Duff for the day. She'd returned to the dining room to see how her new acquaintance was doing.

     "It was good, very good. I haven't eaten that well for quite a while." Jonah smiled for the first time since his arrival. Katie saw a little of the well dressed young man from her dreams.

     "Thats because I'm a damn good grill cook!" she laughed at herself, and said to Jonah, " what brings you to Renewal? I don't think its on a list of exciting vacation stops."

     "Actually, I'm looking for someone. I guess a relative of yours. Caroline Crowe. A...friend told me to look her up."

     Katie raised her eyebrows, "A friend? Caroline was my grandmother. She's passed 25 years ago."

     Jonah looked startled. "I'm sorry, I had no idea..." he trailed off, looking confused.

     "Who told you to see her? She's been gone so long, I always think most people she knew had passed as well."

     "That's just it, this man wasn't much older than myself. Weird." Jonah looked lost, he had no plans beyond seeing Caroline Crowe.

     "Well, Gram left me the diner, amongst other things. Maybe I can help you."

     "What? Oh no, he just said to tell her hello." Jonah looked around the room, anywhere but at Katie.

     "No one ever came to see Gram just to say hello. They came to Gram for help. I didn't only inherit the diner..." Katie left the statement hanging, waiting for Jonah to understand.

     A commotion from the kitchen interrupted the moment. Duff called from the pass through window, "Miss Katie! We got a problem! Water is runnin' everywhere!"

     Katie ran back to the kitchen to see water flowing from the dish area toward the grill. Next it would find it's way to the dining room. She tracked it down to a broken pipe under the three compartment dish sink. She found the shut off and tried to turn it, but it wouldn't budge. "Duff, can you turn this off?" she cried.

     "No, ma'am, I can't get through the water. I can't swim."

     "What? Duff, it's not even an inch deep, oh never mind!" Duff had issues, some day she'd have to figure out what had brought them on.

     She popped her head into the dining room again, "Jonah! You wanna earn that breakfast? I need help!."

     Jonah jumped up and followed Katie back to the kitchen. He turned the knob easily. "You're going to need some new water line and a coupler there."

     " Damn! It'll take two days to get some one out here from the city, I"ll be shut down!" Being in a small town caused small problems to become big ones in a hurry.

     "No one in town does handy man stuff?" Jonah asked. "There's a hardware store next door, right? They should have water line and stuff there."

     Katie ducked down to look at the damage, "Yeah, I expect Randall's got the parts, but no one in town does handy work. They just call over to the 'big city' for experts."

     "If you'd like, I know how to do basic repairs like that," Jonah said, "it's not hard. When does the hardware open?"

     Katie checked the time, "About another hour, if we don't get too busy I can wait 'til then."

     "Well, I don't have any pressing appointments today, I'll go over there when they open. Do you have an account with them?"

     Katie chuckled, "No one has an account with Randall. I'll send cash. It shouldn't be enough to get you out of town, so you'll just have to come back."

     At 8:00 am, Jonah took the twenties Katie had handed him and went next door. Though open, the hardware store didn't look any brighter than it had three hours ago. He stepped inside, the lights didn't do anything to brighten the place. They cast a pale yellow glow over the shelves of tools and parts.

     He found the aisle marked with a hand printed sign that said 'Plumbing'. It only took a few minutes to find what he needed. A few feet of plastic line, a coupler and glue. He took the items to the cash register. The man he guessed was Randall didn't ask if he'd found everything he needed, or even if he was new in town. Just rang the order and took the cash.

     Jonah picked up the bag and made sure to take the receipt to return to Katie with the change.

     When he walked into the kitchen, he was relieved Katie had located an old tool box. It had everything Jonah would need.

     It only took about twenty minutes to make the repair. He turned on the water carefully, looking for leaks. "Everything looks good here, Miss Crowe."

     "Good lord, call me Katie. Miss Crowe makes me feel my age" Katie had been mopping up water while Jonah worked on the broken line. She looked at the new line, "Nicely done. I really appreciate your help, you've saved me a bunch of time."

     Jonah smiled for the second time, "No trouble, it was an easy fix. I'm glad to help, makes me feel better about breakfast."

     "Don't you worry about breakfast. What plans you have for a month or so? You have a destination in mind? Cause if you're staying around Renewal for a while, I got a lot of fixin' needs done here. And, I'm pretty sure I could use a dish washer. My 6:00 boy doesn't seem to be here, and the dishes are lonely." Katie looked at him hopefully, she could use the help, and keep him near to help him.

      "I hadn't really thought about where I'd go next." Jonah's instinct was to leave this town, but he'd come here looking for help. Maybe just staying in one place for a while would help him come to terms with what had happened. Wandering aimlessly hadn't been the answer. "I could help out for awhile, no promises though."

     Katie grinned, "Good enough, let me give you the tour!"