I:VI

An hour or so later we were all piled into a booth at a familiar diner. The diner was called Toni’s, but the man who owned it was named Richard. I’d met the man, nice guy, I asked him about the name and he told me that he’d ordered the letters to spell out “John’s” but he somehow got stuck with “Toni’s”. Wait… what the hell? Anyway, the restaurant came with the town. It was classic. Ever item in the diner was like a relic from WWII. We hung out there a lot.

We sat in the circular booth and ate our breakfasts, eventually, Jessica broke the silence that eating brings, “So what’s going on today? I have work.”

Vince replied, “I have to be at work in three hours.” He turned to Rick, “How are you getting home? You need a lift?”

Rick swallowed his mouthful and replied, “Nah, I can walk. I’m going to see if my brother will let me borrow his truck tonight.”

“Borrow his truck?” Vince was surprised. Not only did Vince drive Rick everywhere, he liked it. Rick was like Vince’s little brother. Well, at least in Vince’s eyes, no one knew for sure if Rick felt like the little brother.

“Yeah, Malissa and I were gonna go out to Lancaster and check out that fair we heard about.”

Alexandra interjected, “What fair?”

“Well it’s like a mini fair for Lancaster. It looked kind cool. I figured everyone was gonna be busy today and I was gonna go by myself until Malissa asked me if I wanted to go.”

“Well, is it like, private or like, can I come, too?” You could tell by looking at Alexandra that she really wanted to go with them, like a little kid.

Rick said to her, “Sure the more the merrier.” Malissa and Alexandra giggled to each other. Rick turned to Kumar, “You wanna come too, buddy?”

“No, I can’t,” he said disappointedly, “I’m taking Rashinda to some studio a little ways up North. We won’t be back until later this evening.”

Vince came back into the discussion, “So who isn’t busy today?” he laughed. Erick, Alex and I raised our hands. Vince said “No, no, no,” with a slight chuckle, “You two can out your hands down. You’re on a mission.” Erick and I slowly dropped our hands.

Alex said, “Dang, so I can go with any one of you guys today, huh?” We all nodded our heads, “Wow, I feel so special.” We laughed.

I wiped my mouth and put my napkin on my plate. I pulled out my wallet and left $20 on the table, “Well, you let that sit, Alex, and I gonna go smoke.” Erick scooted out of the booth allowing me to scoot out. We proceeded to the back entrance toward the cars.

When we stepped outside the sun reminded us how not fully sober we were. We walked over to my ’94 Lincoln Town Car. I know it’s not the car every teenager dreams of, but I liked it; very functional car. We leaned against the front of the hood with our backs to the sun. We looked at the bubble gum speckled cement and the rough white back wall of the diner. I offered Erick a cigarette but he already had one, so I lit it up for myself. We stood quiet for a moment, then I said to him, “We have to go by my house and check in with my mom.” Erick nodded and took another drag. I turned back to the pavement. We stood quiet again. I turned to him, “We’ll probably smoke a joint before we set out on this ‘mission’, or whatever. I got some reefer at the house.” Again, Erick stood still, nodding his head smoking his cigarette. We stood quiet again, this time longer than the last two. I turned and said, “I’m in love with Rashinda.” Erick’s eyes opened wide and his jaw dropped while he turned to me.

Just then the back door opened and the rest of the group poured out, the ones that smoked lighting cigarettes. They walked by us giving props and handshakes while they dispersed to their cars. Rick, Malissa, Alexandra, and Alex were walking down the street toward Rick’s house. Vince’s blue Jimmy pulled away, as did Jessica’s oddly colored Civic. Kumar’s Subaru Impreza station wagon stayed however. I looked and saw him in the driver’s seat with the engine running, but Rashinda wasn’t inside. I turned to face forward and she was standing in front of me. I jumped. She stood there looking up at me, but my reaction caused her to jump. We laughed, then she said, “Call me when you’re heading to Castlevek.” I nodded and she walked away. As the Impreza-wagon pulled away I turned to Erick who was still wide eyed and mouth agape…