Luck of the Draw

Chapter 8 - The Siren's Call

Teddy sat by the window in Patty's diner again, his recap of Sunday's events sitting heavily on his mind. So far he had gas expenses, motel expenses, meal expenses, a shovel, a poinsettia plant, which he gave away, and a bag full of spices.

On the credit side he had nothing in the way of sales or even the promise of sales and in spite of spending all of Monday shivering in his ravine view room scouring the telephone book for another place to stay. It seemed the only place for miles that he could afford was the Waterfall. He picked up the menu and read without seeing.

"Musta liked the burger the other day, eh?" The same waitress stood with one thigh against the table's edge, notepad at the ready. "If you're after lunch again that's not the menu you want." She produced another photocopied sheet from her apron pocket. "These are the day's specials."

"When do you serve the items on the menu?"

"Well not at lunch obviously." She clucked and shook her head.

"What's the Patty recommended lunch, with choice of salad, soup, or onion bun?" His finger traced the line on the page.

"Just what it says, Patty's recommendation."

"Yes, but what is it?"

She shifted weight to her other foot and sighed dramatically. Her eyes rolled up to the ceiling, and she began her recitation. "It's a pork roll smothered in cranberry and avocado with spears of almond sprinkled over the top. The veggies are potatoes, mashed fried or boiled and cabbage. The salad is a salad, the soup is soup and the onion bun is an onion bun."

He scanned the trim body as he listened, stopping short at the end of the description. Teddy tried to picture the described meal and quickly searched the page for something else.

"I'll have the Texas chilli and can I get a small side salad with that?"

"Comes with. Kinda dressing you want?"

"What's the hou—never mind, I'll have Ranch."

"Drink?"

He thought, oh God could I use one. "You have a licence?"

"Sure... for tea and coffee."

"Is there a nice bar nearby?"

"Dwarf's, down the block." She aimed her pencil over her shoulder.

"Thanks. I'll have a coffee." Dwarf's. Why am I not surprised? He nodded as she left and then looked up as several other people came in, stamping the dusting of snow off their shoes and chose tables around the room. Patty's at least seemed to be popular and the burger at lunch the other day wasn't bad. He anticipated a good meal.

!!!!!

Texas chilli turned out to have been made at the center of the earth and Teddy couldn't taste anything else after the first few mouthfuls. He paid his bill, accepting a moist-lipped smile from the waitress, and hurried out, hunting for the bar named, Dwarf's.

The window full of brightly painted gnomes was all he needed for affirmation, and he slipped past the entrance on the slick sidewalk before darting inside and straight to the battered old wooden counter.

"Greetings friend. What's yer poison?"

"I just ate it," he gasped. "Draft please... a large one."

"Ate at Patty's did ya?" The big man laughed and Teddy took him in for the first time. He was huge with arms like sewer pipes and hands as big as footstools.

He gulped down the first half of the glass and sagged onto the round seat of a tippy stool.

"Oh, oh, I needed that."