Maybe she should be doing something
else. Or at least something more.
She liked working at the Honey
Dew. She really did. Sometimes, it could be frustrating. Some treated her like a servant, and left
little if any tip, but most were kind and jovial. There were many regulars she looked forward
to. The Honey Dew Lunch Bunch was loud and self important, but they treated her
well, tipped generously and smiled at her a lot. And there was Adam Garnett, her inexplicable,
going nowhere big crush. Soulful short and chunky Adam, with the beautiful
sweet face, and the undying infatuation with Racine Steel, even with Racine pregnant with Bobby
Ray's child. She should set aside that
foolishness once and for all. She would
think her obsession was over, and then Adam would come in on a Saturday, and
his blue eyes would melt her all over again.
Reggie Crowley and his rude boys
were not pleasant, although she did her best to stay upbeat with them. They were foul-mouthed and unkempt, even
though Reggie was one of the richest men in town, owning the paper mill and
all. They only tipped a pittance, and
many times not at all, but she could handle that, what with the many good
customers to balance them off. One time
Reggie's youngest, Freddy, patted her on the behind, but thankfully the owner,
Grace Donnelly, put a stop to that. She
didn't give a whit whether they were Crowley 's
or not, she wasn't going to have that kind of crap in her establishment. Bless Grace!
She didn't pay well, but she was a kind soul, caring and easy to work
for. Grace was close to three hundred
pounds, and not very tall, but she could be quite the dynamo.
Dotty Mathers would send her food
back several times before she was happy with it, and would not tip at all. And she wanted to stay as far downwind from
Dotty's political and religious opinions as possible. She just didn't want to get involved with that
with people. She liked to keep her
political opinions to herself, and her faith was between her and God. She had heard recent rumors that Dotty might
run for Congress. She didn't know what
to make of that. She thought politicians should at least listen to their
constituents once in awhile. Dotty
didn't seem like much of a listener.
She liked that her day began early,
by 6 AM at the latest, and was wrapped by 2, and she had the rest of the day to
herself. This morning it was a few
minutes after 5 AM, and she sat on the back porch waiting for Grace to come and
open up.
Her problem was, what was she
really doing with her life? About a half
year graduated from high school, and all she had done was start working full time
at the Honey Dew. Shouldn't she be doing
more? Maybe she should be trying to
achieve more. Her friend, Tabby Steel
(yes, she was friends with the sister of her rival- such is life in a small
town), was going to start next fall at South Georgia . Maybe she should consider that, too. South Georgia
was out of reach - her and her mother just didn't have those kinds of
resources, and her grades from high school were not going to win her any
scholarships. Perhaps, however, OTC (Okefenokee Technical College
She didn't know. She just felt down, unsatisfied and drifting
to nowhere. In a way, the whole town
felt that way. Without Bobby Ray, the
football team lost the first round of the state playoffs, a 35 to 7 whooping by
Jeff Davis County Crowley .
So she sat on the back stoop and
thought. Is this what she wanted to do the rest of her life? Work as a waitress, live with her Mom, pine
for a boy who looked like through her as if she wasn't there? She kind of liked Crowley , she didn't have the big Jones to
move somewhere else. Big cities didn't
light up her fancy. She wasn't deluded
enough to want to be an actress, or model, or reality star. But she felt like she should be reaching
for...something more.
She wished she could talk it over
with her elderly friend, Rachel Compton.
But Rachel had passed away just a couple of weeks ago, at her 105th
birthday party, expiring face first into her birthday cake. She had loved talking to her. Even as Rachel's speech became more limited
and slurred, she still understood everything she said. She knew from what others were telling her
not many could. But they had not learned
to read Rachel's non-verbal cues as well as she could. Most people didn't listen well. Most people didn't pay attention as well as
she did. She didn't feel like she was
bragging when she said this. It was just
a fact. It made it difficult in the
restaurant sometimes, almost if she was Sooki Stackhouse from True Blood, and
could read everybody's thoughts. Of
course, she couldn't but she could pick up a lot.
She knew Racine Steel was pregnant
before anyone else, just by her movements and gestures.
She knew that the Reggie Crowley
clan was up to no good, and were figuring out ways to end around the regulators
and environmentalists, that Reggie Crowley was not happy with his accountants,
and would cringe whenever Houston Graves and Gariton Hollander would come in.
She recognized that Christie Delco
Hollander was cheating big time with Rondy Strickland, even if everyone else in
town seemed oblivious to it.
She knew that Dotty Mathers was
filled with an all-consuming hatred and anger that she could barely control,
and it wasn't because of the liberals in Washington, or what she wailed at as
that atheist obstetrician, Dr. Mala Jhadau (she was Hindu, not atheist, but
Dotty didn't know the difference), or even her dissatisfaction with Congressman
Stan Winston. No, she was angry because
the son she had loved all her life was gay, and she couldn't deal with her
swirling, contradictory feelings.
Oh, she so wanted to talk to Rachel
Compton again. And not as her brother,
Cokie Goodkind, the Ghost Squad leader, would.
She wanted her back for real. She
could help her. She could listen like no
one else could, give her feedback, help her right her course.
And then it struck her. She knew where she wanted to do. She knew where she wanted to head. She might need OTC after all. Because she was going to become a CNA
(Certified Nursing Assistant), or maybe even an LPN (Licensed Practical Nurse). She would learn and go back to
places like the Crowley
Baptist Retirement
Village
The door unlocked and quickly
opened. She had been leaning against the
door, and fell in to the Honey Dew. But
it was okay now.
Franny Goodkind knew where she was
going.
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