War and Peace and Pancakes

In between

Timmy and I walked into the restaurant inside a beautiful historic building. Timmy was so sweet. He wanted to take me out to dinner since it was my birthday, and he'd been working a lot. So, we'd come here.

I wanted to invite Meri and Car, too, but Meri was working in Seattle, Washington, and Car was busy making the Head Order happy. It was OK, though! I knew I would see them both again.

I smiled as I follow Timmy inside. Meri and Car were at least happy. I felt it. Even though they weren't together right now, they were thinking about each other. Like me and Timmy.

I ignored the spirit sitting in the corner of the entryway of the restaurant. In the corner of my vision, I saw that he looked like he did when he died. Half his head had been blown off by a cannon ball during the Civil War, the war that Timmy had fought in.

The spirit was aware of the modern world but didn't understand that he was dead. Those ones were the worst. I ignored him. It's best to ignore those kinds of spirits, so I grabbed Timmy's hand as we walked.

Tim squeezed my hand. He knew I was bothered, but he didn't know why. Because he was worried, I let him know I was OK as we were seated.

Our server came over and was talking to us about the specials. I didn't really listen to what she was saying because she was wearing a pink pearl necklace. It was very pretty.

I smiled and told her that her necklace was pretty. She smiled back. The server had a nice smile, and seeing it made me happy. I was about to tell her she had a very nice smile, too, but I turned my head when another spirit came out of the wall.

The server left to get our drinks while I stared at the corner where the new spirit floated. This one was a residual spirit of a woman who had killed herself when she became pregnant out of wedlock. It was such a sad story. My eyes watered. I wasn't hungry anymore.

When the server came back, I didn't want to order any food, so Timmy ordered chicken for me. Oh, I liked fried chicken. I turned back around and ignored the residual spirit, but a voice started to call to me from far away. It was a deep feeling, a friendly deep feeling at least. But, I couldn't understand what it was saying, not yet. But, I would.

Darn it. Timmy had been talking, and I wasn't paying attention to him.

"Sorry, Timmy. What did you say?"

He sighed. Aww, I should have tried harder to listen. He was kind of sad.

But then, he smiled, sadness forgotten. I watched the dimple form on his cheek as he smirked. It was OK. I loved Timmy, and he wasn't mad at me.

"I said, 'Happy birthday, Sam'." As he spoke, he pulled a jewelry box out of his pocket.

I was surprised about the gift. I didn't sense that he was hiding anything, and I almost frowned. Timmy was getting better at hiding things from me. I didn't like it.

But, I ended up not frowning. I smiled as I opened the box to find a heart necklace exactly like the one Samantha wore in Bewitched. It was pink, too.

"I love it, Timmy!" I yelled. Shoot, too loud.

I blushed while he smiled, "I'm happy you like it, Sam."

I quickly put on the necklace, and before he could say anything else, I stood and kissed his cheek. Now, he was surprised. Good. We were even on surprises.

**********

Dinner was very good. For dessert, I had banana pudding. As I ate, I talked to Timmy about the formation of the Banana Republic in Honduras. He only kind of remembered things. For being immortal, Timmy sure was bad at history.