Among the Cattails

City Boy

   Sitting in the Magnolia Cafe was nostalgic. It wasn't true to say that Rose was still completely familiar with the place, but she'd picked out a few distinct memories.

   Sliding into a faded leather booth, Rose sat across from Louise, and against her better judgement, gave quarters to the kids to use in the arcade. Undermining Louise was apparently a good idea at the time.

   "So. Louise Jones. It has a nice ring to it." Rose remarked.

   Louise giggled. "Yep, and the man's not too bad either."

   Rose smiled. She'd always known that Louise would marry someone local, or nice, or a farmer; literally anyone whom her mother believed lived close enough.

   "I think you'll like him," Louise continued, twisting a lock of her hair around her finger. "He's real sweet. He's great with the kids too."

   Rose rolled her eyes. "I honestly don't think you'd marry him if he wasn't." She sipped her water. "I don't even know his name. Where's he from?"

   A picture formed in her mind of who Louise's husband must be. She drew a country man, with a farm and a mother with high cooking expectations. She imagined that he would love football and a good chicken fried steak. She laughed at that last part.

   "Well-," Louise began, but out of nowhere, a tall man arrived at the table.

   "Louise! I thought we'd said we wouldn't let the kids play at the arcade. They'll just bring home tons of crap," he said. Casually, he slid into the booth beside Louise, and planted a light kiss on her temple.

   "Well, you can take that up with her," Louise said, glancing at Rose and grabbing a biscuit off the table.

   The man smiled. Turning towards her, his green eyes smiled knowingly. He had close-cut hair that was a hard shade to name; you couldn't tell if it was brown or blonde. He was wearing a t-shirt and jeans, and was more boyishly cute than handsome.

   "In that case, it's okay," he said, his voice clear. "Jamie Jones," he stated, extending his hand.

   Rose shook his hand and made a face of genuine surprise. "Not what I'd expected," she said to Louise, and introduced herself.

   Jamie leaned back and folded his arms. "So you're the famous Rose. Louise won't shut up about you. You must be one hell of a friend."

  "Oh, I don't know about that," Rose answered. She ate a bite of her pancakes (which were just as fluffy as she'd remembered), and thought for a second. "I'm just an average sister."

   "That is true," Louise said, shrugging her shoulders.

   Rose grinned. "Exactly. And a sister gets to know all about her sister's husband. Tell me everything. How you met, when you got married, everything."

   Laughing, Jamie put his arm around his wife. "Where do I start?"

   Rose rolled her eyes. "Tell me how you met, because that's got to be a story. You're different than who I'd imagined you'd be."

   "Well," Louise began, "we met in college. Jamie was a Business major, and I was in Agriculture. He's only two years older than me. We weren't in any classes together, but we had dorms in the same general area."

   Rose made a snoring sound. "Boooooring. Get to the good stuff."

   Jamie laughed again, and Louise continued. "Be patient! I'm getting there. So Jamie was a delinquent in college, and rode his bike around campus AT NIGHT without LOOKING. So I was walking to my dorm, and next thing I know, this guy rams into me, and I'm completely knocked down. Books flying everywhere. I'm about to let out a stream of profanities at whoever knocked me over, and then I see this guy helping me up, and he's trying to apologize like crazy. He picks up my books for me and I'm just so confused, I don't even know what to say him for the next 5 minutes!"

   At this point in the story, Jamie interjects with his whole "you-bumped-into-me" routine.

"What are you even talking about? You weren't paying attention....."

"I am not the one who was riding a bike without lights....."

At this point Rose just shook her head and poured more syrup over her pancakes.