Crystal Clear

Chapter4

Mothers! who needed them.

I must have been a terrible dissapointment to her. She`d been beautiful when she was younger. Sometimes when she took out old photograph albums I`d stare at the pictures of her and wonder how on earth she`d produced a daughter like me. And unlike me, she was always cool and svelte, never tripping over her dainty feet, very popular with men. I`d once heard an old boyfriend of my mum describe her as hot. and she was too. Small and slender, with red-gold hair tumbling around her face. How could a woman like that look at her fat, clumsy daughter and not wonder where on earth she had gone wrong. That was probably why she couldn`t believe her luck when I `d landed someone like Ryan. And why she was so angry when I told her we`d broken up.

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On Tuesday, I called Lucille and asked her to meet me for lunch. I wanted to probe her a bit to see if it would be alright if I went to see Joshua, get her opinion so to speak. She agreed to meet me at Burgerland. She was already waiting for me at a table when I eventually pushed the glass doors of the restuarant open and quickly stepped into the warmth. Outside, the wind swirled and with it came a light spattering of icy rain.

Lucille was a slender stylish woman, I wasn`t so sure of her age but at a rough guess I `d say twenty- seven, with beautiful chestnut hair that framed an oval face and highlighted the flecks of green in her warm brown eyes. We`d met the day I moved in and had been nodding acquintances ever since. She looked up as I approached and smiled.

"Well if it isn`t the walking hazard" she smirked. I grimaced at her bad taste in jokes and slid into the chair opposite.

"Can`t you come up with anything better than 'walking hazard'?" I asked, shrugging out of my coat and draping it across a nearby cahir.

"It`s what everyone is calling you at the station" she replied. " seriously Callie, no one can talk of anything else, especially with Josh all banged up like that."

"How is he?" I asked wincing inwardly.

"He is milking this for all its worth. I wouldn`t worry about him if I were you, though you might want to stay away from Ms. Reed for a couple of years."

"Shouldn`t be too hard," I shrugged, relieved that he was doing ok. "Have you ordered?"

"Only coffee, I wanted to wait for you." she beckoned to a passin waitress. "What do you want?"

The waitress arrived armed with her ever present notebook and pencil. She repeated the question.

"I`ll have a medium salad, chips and Coke" I said. "No wait- no chips. I`m trying to cut out chips"

Lucille laughed. Not a very caring laugh, I thought. "Jesus, Callie! where is the fun in that? no point coming to Burgerland so you can eat dreary stuff."

"Easy for you to say," I groused. "You eat like a horse and yet you never put on any weight. I can hardly fit into my favourite jeans now and I can`t afford another pair. I badly need to lose a few pounds"

"You just have to learn the secret of speedy metabolism girl." she waved away my complaints with an airy wave of her hand. "A small French fries will hardly make any difference."

"I`ll have an extra large burger with all the toppings, a large soda and French fries." she told the waitress. The waitress nodded and informed us our food would be ready in five minutes and departed.

" I have something that`s been bothering me" I said. "And I wanted to run it by you first."

She raised one well sculpted eyebrow at me in surprise. " What happened to Ryan?"