Knowing Things Only She Knows: Catherine's Summer Adventure

Chapter 5

23 May, 7:00 p.m. Sacramento, California

Dear Diary,

Good thing I brought you with me. This evening, I’m expecting me and my friends to have an all-out order in Sally’s. The five of us are starving so much, but I didn’t care. I don’t know why I want to go there to talk, but I think it’s a nice place. Plus, mom and dad used to go there.

They have a very sneaky secret here in Sally’s, and I want to see it for myself. I want to know if my parents and Mrs. Reed left something remarkable in that place. Also, I want to go there because that place started a very wonderful relationship with my mom and dad. That is the place where they first met, had their first date and maybe their first kiss. I was looking out for more in Mrs. Reed’s story about that café, so I’d like to figure out more and for sure, Alex would to (she’d been swearing up and down that her mom is a wild child). Just before I return in Los Angeles, I want to go there so I can have something happy to tell to my parents especially to mom. Maybe if she remembers happy memories and thinking happy thoughts, she’ll get well again. But I’m afraid she won’t talk to me still. Second plan, tell dad about it, but maybe he won’t talk to me, too. I still don’t get it. Why are they so sensitive and protective about me when I mentioned (I mean, Alex) about Siena’s Garden? It’s only a flower shop, by the way.

Oh, so okay. We’re almost here already. Wait, we’re here already, I’m just busy writing on you. I’m just happy because I could let out all my feelings to you, and of course you wouldn’t judge me for that. So, I’ll write again later when I get in Los Angeles, huh? I’ll get myself fed up with foods, I’m hungry!

 

 

Sincerely,

C.M.R.S.H.

 

 

It was seven o’clock in the evening when my friends and I reached Sally’s. When we entered, it was like I’m just entering Siena’s Garden. The entrance has a pink signboard saying “Sally’s Coffee Shop & Diner, since 1990”. There were different kinds of flowers outside: daffodils, lilacs, orchids, roses, sunflowers etc. This could be one of the reasons why mom loved this place. The bell rang when Travis opened the glass door and gentleman or not, he told us “Ladies first.” Unlike Elle and Jillian, Alex and I were busy examining the place. When we entered Sally’s, Alex gripped my hand and whispered, “It’s beautiful in here” and I couldn’t blame her for saying so. It was dark outside but I can still feel the summer wind in my skin.

Round tables were all over the room covered with pink table cloth and fresh flowers in the tables. They said that teens spend their time here just to be away from home, and honestly, I will be here also if this was just a little bit closer to my school. Picture frames of pop and country artist of the past and new generation hung on the walls, and I came over to look at it. I searched for two faces: Adam Lambert and Kelly Clarkson and there they were, in the centre of it. The person in the counter might’ve seen my exasperation over the picture that’s why he cleared his throat. I look at him and saw a man wearing a white apron. He looked at me carefully then smiled.

“Are you the Hatfield girl?” He asked. Alex, who’s beside me looking at the pictures also made her look at him. “Oh, and you’re Angie’s little girl, right?” Alex and I looked at him, both dumbfounded. The man, as I can say was in his early sixties with beard in his face and hazel eyes. He laughed when he saw our poker faces.

“Nah, I know you don’t know me. And I’m no stranger, by the way. I’ve known your parents for years and still they’re coming back for my hot chocolate. I’m Andrew, the son of Sally Gentry, owner of this store,” the man said. Wait, could he be the one who’d been the partner-in-crime of parents’ romance?