My Father Is Who?!: An E.P. Fan Fiction.

Chapter Four: Bringing It Back.

My feet carried me across the gravel parking lot, daddy followed close behind me. We made our way to the porch of the trailer-dinner in silence.

He reached around me and held the door open, gesturing me to enter, the little bell on the door rang out, breaking the comfortable silence. I stepped inside slowly and waited for him. A waitress looked up at us and offered a smile. She looked worn down. I assumed she was tired from working the late shift, or maybe she had just taken over. Either way, she had a look of exhaustion on her face that she tried to cover with heavy make up and a smile.

She watched us crawl into a booth and pick up two of the menus that were folded neatly on the window sill. I knew what I wanted, but I humored dad who looked over the menu. I always got the same thing: two eggs over easy, toast, bacon and a glass of orange juice.

When I thought dad might be satisfied with my gesture I lowered my menu. The question from yesterday had been weighing on my mind heavily. I decided to give it another try:

"Daddy." my voice called shyly across the table. My fathers gaze was busied with the menu he held in front of him. I could only see the deep crevasses of his forehead.

His smooth skin was a creamy white and scarred. On the right side of his face beside his eyebrow was a scar. He explained that when he was younger he used to scrap. Someone got one good hit on him, but dad said that guy was sorry.

Over his left eyebrow was a chicken pox scar left from when he was a child because he wouldn't listen to his mother when she said don't scratch it.

His ice blue eyes lifted from the menu and met my gaze curiously. He analyzed my expression briefly. He was growing more and more unsure if he should answer me but finally he spoke uneasily, "Yes Dahlia?"

"Daddy, why won't you tell me about your family?" My question was swift and left him at a loss for words.

He froze and looked me over for several moments and then opened his mouth to speak again, his eyes darting toward the window.

"Because now is not the time, my darling daughter."

I stared at him in disbelief. What was so horrible about his family that he wouldn't even tell me a little bit of information about them? What was it that he was hiding?

I shrugged it off and watched the waitress walk over, her heels fell against the floor with a loud "Click."

She must have been new here because in the town of Killeen, everyone knew everyone and there was no getting around that. There was a total population of 700 people, word got around.

She stepped up to the table and eyed my father for a moment before speaking, "How can I help you today?"

Her hair was artificially banana yellow and teased adding at least six inches to her height. I held back a laugh. She had green eyes and sun kissed skin. The pink uniform clung tightly to her heavy body. The name tag on her top read "Barbra." I squinted and looked at her face that was turned toward my father. She had on to much make up. Thick blue eye shadow, to much rogue and heavily made up red lips.

 My father looked me over for a moment and then turned to the woman, "I want two eggs over easy, bacon -- crispy, dark rye toast, two biscuits with sausage gravy and a cup of coffee." The woman rushed to take down my fathers order before turning to me. I gave her several seconds to read over the order before I opened my mouth to bark out my order.

"I want two eggs over easy, bacon, light rye toast and a hash brown." She scribbled down my order and then looked up at me, "no drink?"

Before I could answer my father spoke, "Orange juice with the pulp and a glass of milk."