Fancy's Not My Name

My Guardian Angel

It had been three days since Dottie had come into the diner. Harriett had hoped she'd come back, but she hadn't. Jake was worried about her too. They'd gone to the Midsummer Dance together almost a week ago and he hadn't heard from her since.

"Was anything wrong when you dropped her off?" Harriett asked. She and Jake both worked the same shift that night and we're trying figure out where their friend had gone.

"No," Jake shook his head. "Everything seemed fine. Normal."

"We'll find her, Jake. Don't worry." Jenny—another waitress—told him.

They made a plan to look for her once everyone finished their shifts. Jake was going to go to her house, and Harriett, along with everyone else we're going to split into groups to look around. Those on foot would check closer to the diner, those with cars would go deeper into the city.

"What happened, that day she showed up?" Jake asked.

"I'm not sure. She seemed fine when she came in, but she looked like she was crying when she left. Seemed real angry, too." Harriett described.

"I fired her, that's why she was upset."

Everyone standing at the counter turned to face their boss. A furious expression settled on Jake's face.

"You what?" He growled.

His boss and his coworkers were slightly shocked at his sudden attitude change. Jake had never been anything other than happy around them. They'd never seen him angry.

"I fired her. She's bad for business. Drives customers away." His voice began to die in his throat as Jake's face went from furious to positively livid.

He was the only one who knew just how badly Dottie needed this job. Joe had screwed her over giving her three weeks off just cause he was stressed out. Now he'd gotten rid of her entirely.

"If anything—and I mean anything—has happened to her, you'll regret it." Jake threatened.

The cook putting up their orders broke the tense silence. Jake gathered his trays and made his way over to his station. The others looked disapprovingly at Joe, who'd suddenly gone rather pale.

Joe mentally decided never to make the usually happy go lucky waiter angry ever again. He didn't doubt Jake would make good on his promise. The boy was nearly six and a half feet tall, and wrestling with his older brother had kept him in good shape. Joe knew that being on the wrong side of Jake's fist would mean a trip to the hospital.

"I'd watch your back, boss. We all love Dottie, especially Jake." The cook said in warning before returning to his work.

Everyone exited Marie's at twelve-fifteen. Hopefully looking this late would prove beneficial, seeing as barely anyone would be out.  They spent ten minutes figuring out who would go with who, and where they'd start looking.

They also decided on a rendezvous point if they didn't find her, and six o'clock was as late as they would stay out. None of them would mind staying later, but a lot of them had families of their own and work tomorrow.

Harriett and another waiter were one of two pairs searching in a car. They would start about ten blocks away before slowly moving toward the middle of the city.

"She's a little girl," Michael said. "And we've got a lot of city to cover."

Harriett sighed and looked out the window as they crawled down the street.

"We'll find her. There aren't many places she could go."

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