Dark Day

"Oh, shine!" said Susie Mayer.  "It's him!"  Susie and Jenky Evans were watching the parking lot out front of The Chicken Hut.  Sure enough, the same old rusty Ford Pickup was pulling up.  Just like every Thursday at 4:30 PM.

"What are we gonna tell him, Jenky?" stressed Susie.  "He is gonna freak the flat out when he sees the change!"  She started to move behind Jenky, as if that stringbean could hide her.  Tall and ropey, Jenky looked like the entire Evans clan, like lean cowboys instead of the grease monkeys most of them were.  Susie was a tiny thing, only five foot and a little round, but in a feminine way.  Many a night Jenky longed to work up the nerve to see Susie after work, but his voice choked off at all such things.

"He's gonna see that Maybeen has gone up on the Thursday Dark Special, and he's gonna blow up, just you see!"  said Susie, her hands clutched together in front of her face.

The door creaked open with a tinny squeal, and out rolled Elbert Luck, a squat, determined looking man.  He only came into town for Wednesday Senior Discount at Yeltin's IGA and then Thursday to The Chicken Hut for the Dark Day Special.  Elbert was a stocky man, built like a trash compactor.  He had a grim determination on his face.  Not a mean look, but one of a man who knew what his mission was and was determined to achieve it.

He pushed open the front door of The Chicken Hut, and moved in shambling steps to the front counter.  Jenky retreated leaving a shivery, little Susie to wait on Mr. Luck.  "G-g-good day, Mr. Luck.  What you like today, Sir?"  As if she didn't know.

"I'll have the dark special."  Elbert said it slowly, carefully, in a deep firm voice, as if he were announcing the second coming to those non-believers who were bound to perish.

"O-o-kaay, sir?  You-you did see, sir, that the price has changed slightly, sir."  Susie shakily pointed up at the hand written pricing board.  The longstanding price of The Dark Special, ten pieces of dark meat for $4.99 had changed.  It was now $5.69.  Maybeen Herreld, the owner for the last twenty-three years, had held out as long as she could.  But with the rising price of poultry and the damn increases in minimum wage, she had to adjust even the special price.  Still and all, it was three bucks less than the regular price.

Elbert looked up, puzzled.  He was not a man used to change.  He had not varied his routine much in the last ten years, ever since his wife Arletta had passed.  He thought for well over a minute, as Susie wondered if her bladder would hold.  "I've got $5.34 cents exactly.  That's for the chicken, plus the government's blood money.  That's all I brought with me."

"I-I appreciate that, Mr. Luck, but the price has changed.  It's now $5.69, which with tax is, is..."  She looked around for somebody else, her mind too afire to think out math.  Jenky peeked from around the fryer and squeaked, "Six dollars and nine cents."

Elbert shrugged.  "Don't got it.  Don't see why it has to change.  A special is a special."  He stood at the counter, unsure what to do.  After a minute he asked, "How much would you charge for nine pieces?"

Susie was reeling,  "Well, you could buy pieces you want individually.  Dark meat is 99 cents apiece individually.  You can buy that way."

Jenky had a brief fit of manning up, and came round to the counter with Susie.  "Yeah, that'd be nine pieces for 99 cents each, so it would equal $8.91 plus tax, for a total of $9.53."

Elbert shook his head.  "That sure don't seem right."  And he stood there, blocking the counter as the Easter family came in, all seven of them.  That was followed by the Harley brothers, and then even the Gorland twins.  And Elbert wouldn't budge.  "If I can't get my special, I may have to go someplace else."

"Dang it, Susie!" the uglier of the Harley brothers griped.  "Can't you get him to get a move on?"

This was followed by some major league caterwauling by every soul there.  Except for Elbert Luck, who, in a sense, was placidly blocking the plate.  Finally, Maybeen came out of her office.  "What in the name of our savior is a-going on out here? Has everyone lost their mind?"

Everyone started shouting about Elbert.  "Please!" Maybeen shouted.  "One at a time!"

Jenky put on his brave pants and spoke up.  "Elbert, uh, Mr. Luck here, wants to buy the Dark Day Special, but he only has enough to cover the old price.  I don't think he knew about the increase."

Maybeen scoffed.  "Is that so, Elbert?  Well, what do you think, Elbert?  I can hold my prices forever?  Geez, I wish my poultry suppliers would hold the line, but they got their problems too.  And then the government stepping in to tell me how much I got pay these damn kids who are lucky in this town to have a job at all.  Elbert, Elbert, what am I gonna do with you?  You know things change!"

Elbert looked at Maybeen, tears swelling in his eyes.  "I think....I think...things have changed enough."  And Maybeen and the others (all except the Harley brothers who had the extra special privilege of being mean and dumb), all began to realize that this wasn't about the price of chicken, but about Elbert desperately holding onto a routine that diminished in his mind the pain of his wife's passing.

"Okay, Elbert, just for you today, the Dark Day special will be restored at 5 PM.  You can get the special for $4.99."

"$5.34 with tax," piped in Jenky.  Maybeen gave him a stern look.

"But, Elbert, I swear to God,next week you better be prepared to fork over an extra three bits, because I can't keep things the same forever.  And I'm so sorry, Elbert, but neither can you."

Elbert looked at her with sad recognition.  "Okay, I'll sit down and wait until 5.  But that's really pushing it for me getting to The Wheel in time.  It starts at 5:30 and it takes me twenty minutes to get back home."

Maybeen let out a sigh of exasperation.  "Take a seat, Elbert.  Maybe we'll accidentally give it to you a few minutes early."

As Elbert sat down, the ugliest Harley brother piped up, "Hey, we want that special too!"

Maybeen looked at those two wretched examples of humanity and said, "You know, I do have the right to refuse service to anybody I want."

So Elbert got the special and eventually The Chicken Hut returned to normal.

The next week, Elbert Luck was there with six dollars and nine cents.