When she delivered this last order, Yasmine’s voice again went from businesslike to a kinda holy tone, like she was some kinda environmental priestess. The change in her voice almost made me laugh, because she looked the least like a granola kind of chick than anybody I could imagine. I had to bite my lower lip to stop from grinning.
Yasmine didn’t seem to catch my stifled smirk. “Pots and pans you have to scrub in the sink. Come out and bus the tables as often as you can. I’ll split my tips with you eighty-five-fifteen. Okay?”
“Sure.”
Yasmine left and I got busy. Soon I had a sink full of steaming water and soaking crusty skillets and baking dishes, and the diswashing machine was droning and spritzing away. I found a wire brush and began attacking the caked-on crud in the pots. Every few minutes I stuck my head out into the front to check on which tables needed clearing. When I saw people getting up I would dash over with my plastic tub and gather up all the leftovers and plates and cigarette butts and then slop down the table with a clean cloth.
When I was ten my folks and I had lived in a temple, and I had learned how to do this kinda stuff in the communal kitchen. It was nothing new to me, and even though I would’ve rather been outside with Sid, I gave the job my full attention. I guessed that growing up in a family of lazy Zen parents had been good for something.
Outside I could hear the mower running, and every once in a while Sid would pass by the screen door, cutting a bright green passage through the jungle. He had taken off his shirt and tied a blue bandana around his forehead. I could see him, but he couldn’t see me. His chest hair was mostly silver, but he was indeed pretty trim around the gut for an old guy.
After forty-five minutes Yasmine brought me a big fat sticky bun. I had seen them under a glass cover on the counter out front.
“Here. This should hold you till three. That’s when we close.”
I dried my hands and grabbed the pastry. I took a big bite out of it, and talked around the sweet mouthful. “You guys don’t stay open later than that?”
“Nope. The motel business picks up around then, and Ann’s got to be free for that. Maybe if we could afford to hire some more help. Another chef, another waitress. But Ann doesn’t think we’d get enough dinner business to justify it. And there’s no way I’m staying past my shift. It’s a long enough day from five to three.”
“You get here at five?”
“Not me. I start at six-thirty. But Sonny and Ann open up then. Hey, that’s enough with the twenty questions.” Yasmine moved toward the door, but stopped to look back at me. Her raspberry-colored lips twisted into a slippery smile. “You’d better bring some disinfectant to clean out booth number six.”
“How come?”
“Kid with a leaking diaper.”
“Ee-yeuw.”
Yasmine grinned wider at my reaction. “Get used to it.”
Around two-fifteen I heard the mower stop. Sid came in through the back door. He had put his shirt back on, and now sweat was seeping through the cloth, making dark patches on it.
“How’s it going, Kid? You earned those delicate Palmolive fingers yet?”
“Sid, I have no idea what you’re talking about. But the job is fine. Carry water, chop wood, right?”
“Now I got no idea what you’re talking about. But so long as you’re down with the work, that’s great. I wouldn’t wanna feel I had shanghaied you into something too obnoxious.”
Sid passed into the front of the diner, and I could hear him joking with everyone. He came back before very long with two lunches in greasy paper bags. “Pair o’ cheeseburgers apiece for me and Angie, with double fries. We’ll get Cokes from the machine at the garage.” Sid winked. “Too bad you gotta wait another half-hour or so, Kid.”
“Yeah, too bad you don’t have beautiful women bringing you pastry like I do in here.”
“Zat so? Maybe we’ll have to negotiate a swap in our duties tomorrow.”
“Fat chance.”
By three, only a single couple was left eating. The guy was thin as a pencil and was polishing off the meat-loaf special, which featured a gravy-covered slab as big as book. The woman was drastically overweight and was picking at a salad. I had to chuckle.
Yasmine stood a bit off from their table radiating a kind of hurry-up-and-finish vibe. Ann flipped the sign in the window from open to closed, and started cleaning. Sonny was scraping his grill and skimming floating burnt bits off the fat in the deep fryers.
“Kid A, we can use some mop and bucket action out here.”
“Sure thing.”
At last Jack Sprat and his wife left, and we could sit and eat. Sue showed up, but not Sid or Angie. Sonny got busy with the tools of his trade, and pretty soon had whipped us up big plates of whatever we had asked for. I had the fish and chips, and after my hard work it tasted sweeter than almost any other meal I had ever enjoyed.
I sat in a booth with the three women, sharing a long seat with Sue. She took up more space than me on the seat, and her leg was touching mine. But she didn’t make any effort to move it away, so neither did I. Sonny sat at the counter with his back to us, not unfriendly but rather kinda shy and silent. The women talked about girl stuff, while I focused on eating. When we were all finished, we did a final cleanup of the joint. We all moved outside, and Ann locked the diner door.
Yasmine turned to me and opened her purse. She dug out a five-dollar bill and handed it to me. “A decent day,” she said, then headed for a beat-up Ford Escort the patchy brown and red of a rotten apple. “See you all tomorrow.” She got in and drove off, her engine sounding weaker than the lawnmower’s. Merging with the traffic on Route 1 took all the power she had.
Something crunched on the gravel, and I turned around.
Sonny was wheeling a three-speed bike from where it must’ve been parked. The hundred-year-old thing looked like it weighed a million pounds. He swung one leg over it, snugged his ass on the wide seat, and got ready to pedal off.
“Buh—bye, Ann. Don’t forget to order muh—more fries.”
“Okay, Sonny. Go safe.”
The chef took off in the same direction as Yasmine.
“How far’s he have to go?” I asked.
“About nine miles,” Ann said. “He lives with his sister just outside Lumberton.”
“How come Yasmine doesn’t give him a ride?”
Ann looked kinda weary or embarrassed or something. “They start at different times in the morning.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t explain why she couldn’t give him a lift now.”
Sue said, “Yasmine’s a bitch. She’s too good for the rest of us. She comes from California.”
“That’s enough, Sue. It’s Yasmine’s decision to make. Remember that she’s got her mother to worry about.”
Sue blew air so her lips fluttered noisily. “Oh, I forgot, the movie star!”
“Mrs. O’Hara’s old job has nothing to do with anything. She’s a sick woman. Maybe you’d like to be in such a fix, having to take care of your Mom.”
“If my Mom was dying, she’d probably still refuse to see me.”
“Sue, that’s not true! I grew up with your mother, and I know she loves you very much. You two just need to reconnect on a new level.”
“Sorry, Aunt Ann, but that’s so far from reality it’s not even on this planet”
My question had started this old messy argument, and I felt guilty about it. My feelings must’ve shown, because Ann said, “Let’s not spend any more time on this discussion. I’ve got to get behind the desk at the office. Are the cabins finished?”
“Almost. Just the little courtesy touch left.”
“Well, get to it.”
I stuck up my hand. “Any more work for me today?”
“No, Kid. We’ll organize a chore list tomorrow that’ll keep you and Sid busy. But right now you’re free.”
“Cool.”
I thought about tracking down Sid. But if he was still hanging with Angie, I didn’t w
ant to be a part of that scene.
“C’mon with me, Kid,” Sue said. “You can help me, and then I bet you’ll want to use our shower.”
I could feel my face get red. “Do I smell that bad?”
Sue’s plump face split in a broad smile. “Have you ever smelled an old dishcloth that’s been soaking in mayonaisse-flavored hotdog water for about a month?”
“Get out of here!”
“Okay, maybe soaking for just two weeks.”
Ann laughed. “You’d better get used to Sue’s wicked sense of humor, Kid. It’s worse if she likes you.”
Now my face really started to burn.
“Follow me, Kid Mayo.”
Sue led me to the back door of the office building that was also where her and Ann lived. The door opened up onto a small storage area full of fresh sheets and towels and cleaning supplies. Sue grabbed a small box and headed toward the cabins.
At the farthest one she used her key to open the door and went inside. I followed. The inside of the place was kinda homey, even if it was a little drab. A chipped dresser and mirror, bed covered with a nubby spread, a plastic chair. Heavy drapes could be pulled across the front picture window. The lamps featured paper shades with pictures of cowboys on them, fit more for a kid’s bedroom than some kinda den of sin.
“First we have to fill the machine.”
Sue opened a door that revealed the tiny bathroom. She stepped inside, and said, “Come here, so you can learn.”
I went into the bathroom with her. There was barely enough room for both of us.
On the wall hung a coin-operated condom dispenser. Sue cracked it open and took fresh condoms from her box to top it off.
I looked away, but then she said, “Here, Kid, for you,” and I had to look back at her.
Grinning like a cat, she held out a pink-wrapped condom for me.
It took me way too long to find my voice. “Oh, great, what’m I gonna do with that?”
“If you don’t know—”
I snatched it out of her hand and stuffed it in my pocket “I know plenty. Are we done here?”
“Almost.”
We left the bathroom. Sue moved to the bed. From her box she took two Hershey’s Kisses and placed one on each pillow.
“Classy,” I said. “I’m surprised you don’t lay out chocolate dildos.”
“Oh, now that’s just crude.”
“Me crude? Who handed who a condom?”
Sue shrugged, her face now sober. “Nothing personal, Kid. Just preaching safe sex, right? Who you do it with is no concern of mine. Let’s finish up this assignment It’s been a long day.”
When Sue said that, I felt suddenly bone-tired. It seemed hard to believe that this morning I had woken up under a tree with just the open road ahead of me, and no awareness of what was going to happen, or that such a place as Deer Park even existed.
We laid out condoms and Kisses in the remaining cabins. Then Sue brought me back to the rooms where she and her aunt lived. I didn’t get a tour and really wasn’t interested at that point. A single bedroom with twin beds, a living room, a small kitchen that hardly looked used, a clunky old computer on a desk. One of the beds was covered with stuffed animals, I noticed. But only the green-tiled shower held any real attraction for me.
I locked myself in the bathroom and stripped. Pretty soon I was soaping up and shampooing myself more enthusiastically than a squad of football players after the game. This was my first shower in too many days.
Someone knocked on the door. “Kid A,” yelled Sue above the noise of the shower, “you want to put your grungy old clothes back on?”
I hadn’t thought about it. “Um, not really.”
“Well, I’ve got some other ones here that might fit. Stuff left behind by people. It’s all clean.”
“I’m not fussy.”
“Good. I’ll leave them on top of the hamper, and take your dirty ones for the laundry.”
“The door’s locked.”
“Not now it’s not.”
She got the damn door unlocked somehow. I moved away from the shower curtain, but she didn’t come any closer than the hamper. When I heard the door shut again, I peeked around the curtain.
Sue had left. I wasn’t sure if I was glad or disappointed.
The clothes fit good enough, a flannel shirt and some no-name jeans. I left the bathroom and found a connecting door to the office part of the building. Ann was the only one there, sorting through bills at a desk. She looked worn-down and preoccupied. I wondered why most of the adults I knew wore that same expression. One of the great things about Sid was that he never showed such a down face.
“Where’s Sue?”
“She took my car into town to get herself some more cigarettes. I really wish she’d quit.”
“Well, uh, thanks for everything, Ann. I think I’m gonna head back to the trailer now.”
“Fine.”
Inside the stubby trailer it was kinda gloomy, even though it was only about five o’clock. I flipped the switch on a forty-watt bulb and was surprised to see it light up. Ann must’ve turned the electricity back on. The beds had been made up, and I had to laugh when I saw the candies on the pillows. Sid’s pack rested on one bunk and mine on the other. I lay down on the bed alongside my pack. I dug out my headphones and started some classic Bad Brains playing. I was thinking about Jack living all alone in his mountaintop fire lookout tower. I thought I’d just close my eyes for a minute.
I don’t know what time it was when the noise of the busted door fighting somebody woke me up, but it was darker than dirt outside the trailer windows. Still half-asleep, I saw Sid come in. He looked bummed. But when he spotted me looking at him he managed to grin.
“Get back to sleep, Kid. Tomorrow’s a brand-new goddamn day.”
Three
The variety of scraps you had to scrape off breakfast plates was much less interesting than what you got at lunchtime. I had never really thought about how traditional breakfast food was so much more limited than meals at other times of the day. Bits of toast with teethmarks in them. Smears of egg yolk. Chunks of pancake, soggy with butter and syrup. Some red and white crumbs of Sonny’s excellent hash. Splinters of well-done bacon. Paprika-sprinkled hunks of potato with fork grooves through them. That about covered the range of what people were ordering out front at the Deer Park Diner. Oh, and the occasional sticky bowl of oatmeal or Cream of Wheat. I shoveled all the leftovers into the compost bin and stacked the empty plates in the washer.
I had my earbuds in, listening to some skatepunk. The music helped me get into a real intense work rhythm. A line from The Prophet kept running through my brain below the music. “You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.” That’s how I tried to work, even though this job was pretty unchallenging.
People’s leftovers could be pretty disgusting. But the sight and smell of all this mangled food probably would’ve still had me drooling, if I hadn’t already eaten. Eaten too much, in fact. Ann and Sonny had indulged me and Sid when we got into this dumb contest at breakfast.
When I opened my eyes that morning, my second day here, I had a feeling light must’ve just struck into the trailer. The light had that kind of early-morning freshness. But Sid was already up, in a manner of speaking. Actually, he was stretched out on the floor doing pushups. All he wore was his underwear. It was kinda embarrassing, especially since I was still totally dressed. But I figured if we were going to be sharing this space, I’d have to get used to this kinda display. I shucked my silent earbuds before I spoke.
“Uh, morning, Sid. Guess I fell asleep before I could get out of my clothes.”
“That’s the kinda thing. Usually happens. When you go full out. During a busy day. No shame. In that.”
Sid’s words came in bursts between his pushups. I couldn’t get out of bed while he was hogging the limited floorspace, so I had to watch his cotton-covered butt pumping up and down. The sight raised thoughts in my head about
where Sid might have been until late last night. Trying to get into Ann’s pants, of course. And probably not succeeding, based on that scowl he had shown me in an unguarded moment. I remembered Sue handing me a condom, which still burned right now in the pocket of my new jeans. I had found it transferred there after Sue took my old clothes away to wash. But with a little effort I managed to push the stupid visions of these elderly people getting it on out of my mind. The advice Sue had offered me also applied to Sid. Whatever Sid did with his dick was his own business. If he was screwing Ann, or had at least tried to get into her pants, it was none of my affair.
Sid finished his exercises with a fancy little maneuver that left him standing, panting just a little. I got out of bed and moved off a bit from him. He wore a wide grin, and I could’ve believed that the grim expression I had seen him sporting last night was just a dream.
“Nothing like the old boot camp drill to get the blood flowing in the morning.”
“Are you telling me that you were in the Army once?”
“Maybe. What’s the matter? Can’t picture me taking orders? Well, I can accept bossing around just fine, if I put myself deliberately in a place where them’s the rules of the game. If you choose to join some system, then you should play by the system’s ground rules. At least that’s the way I look at it. Living outside all structures is one thing. That’s where I’m happiest. Then you get to make your own code. But if you sign onboard some ship, you don’t go bucking the captain. Unless you intend to overthrow him and take his place. And while there might be times when you’re compelled to do that, and to face all the heavy shit such a move brings with it, most of the time things work out best if everyone sticks to their assigned place, and does their job intelligently”
“Does this lecture have two parts? Because I really have to pee.”
Roadside Bodhisattva Page 5
