Dead Stop (10 page)

“They were
certainly in a hurry,” Stacey continued to watch the front window.

“Anything going
on in Masonfield tonight?”

“Just the
football game,” the girl shrugged. “But it’s us against the Bulldogs, and it’s
supposed to be a big game. Maybe they had a big fight break out?”

“That’s probably
it,” the old trucker nodded. “You small town Texans do take your high school
football seriously.”

“Try growing up
around here, you would understand why.”

“That bad, huh.”

“I didn’t say it
was
bad
,” the girl laughed, “It’s just kind of…limited.”

“Ah, well I
guess I can see…”

A muffled
outburst came from the direction of the kitchen, causing the pair to stop and
look towards the swinging door. A male voice said something indecipherable,
followed by another sharp retort from a female speaker. It sounded like Marisa
was definitely unhappy about something.

“I believe
that’s your friend, the ‘sweetheart’, isn’t it?” Grandpa Tom raised his
eyebrows at Stacey.

The girl cocked
her head, and listened to the kitchen for a moment longer before answering.

“Yep,” she
chirped brightly and snatched up a towel hanging next to the coffee machine.
“She
is
a sweetie. Now I have to go stop her from murdering Tomas!”

###

Nightfall -
Benny

“No Benny! I
don’t do the kitchen, you know that!”

“
Chica
, please!”
The little janitor tried to soothe the angry waitress. “I’ll just be gone a
minute. Tomas has been gone for half an hour now, and I need to get him back
here so I can catch up on my work.”

Truthfully, he
felt a little irritated himself at how the young cook took his good nature for
granted. But there were worse things than standing in a kitchen when he needed
to be somewhere else. For instance, the situation developing right now…

“Oh no!”
Marisa’s dark eyes flashed. “
I’ll
go get Tomas. And when I get hold of
that little
pendejo
we’ll have a chat about wandering off and leaving
his job for other people. It’s time this crap came to a stop.”

“I don’t think
that’s such a good idea.”

“Oh I think it’s
a great idea,” she snarled. “Me and that clown definitely need to talk.”

Benny had a
pretty good idea how such a “talk” would go down.

Knowing Marisa,
it would be heard all the way into Masonfield, and anybody who spoke Spanish
would get a real education in profanity. She usually refrained from bad
language, as he knew she considered its casual use a sign of ignorance and low
class. But when her temper was up…like it threatened to be now…she commanded a
vocabulary of obscenities that was breathtaking in its scope.

“No, you won’t,”
he stated with gentle finality. “
I
will deal with Tomas.”

“Hmph!” she
snorted and frowned at him with folded arms. “I know you. You will give him a
gentle lecture and ask him to be more ‘considerate’ in the future.”

“You catch more
bees with honey than vinegar,
chica
.”

“Tomas isn’t a
bee!” She rolled her eyes. “For one thing, he’s too lazy to be a bee. Honey is
wasted on him…unless you’re drowning him in it. Now
that
would be a good
use of honey.”

She made motions
with her hands of clenching a neck and holding a head underwater.

“You are such a
sweet flower,” Benny laughed.

“Benny, I mean
it! This is getting old. Big Earl is paying him by the hour, not by the joint.
He’s going to get you in trouble, and you’re not the one doing anything wrong.”

 “Okay,
okay,” he assured her. “I’ll talk to him…I promise.”

He was a little
annoyed about having to deal with her as well as the recalcitrant cook. But at
the same time he felt relieved to see her acerbic wit replacing the fury that
had threatened to manifest a minute earlier. She had now settled for folding
her arms and giving him a black look, before conceding the issue with a
resigned grimace.

Tomas, I just
saved your butt from a world class scorching. You better appreciate this. But
if you do this again, I swear I’ll let her rip your ass to ribbons.

On a more honest
level he knew this would most likely happen again, and he would once again
intervene to keep the peace then as well. But it still made him feel good to
indulge in the thought.

“And you are too
nice for your own good,” the waitress sighed, and shook her head despairingly.
“There is just no hope for you.”

Benny braced
himself for another lecture on the evils of being too nice. He had heard those
before too. Fortunately, right then Stacey bounced into the kitchen... much to
the man’s relief.

“Hi guys!” she
chirped with a high wattage smile. “Guess what!” She did a skip and pirouette
while waving a towel over her head before coming to a stop and beaming at the
pair of them like a kid on Christmas morning.

“What’s up?”
Benny laughed at her exuberance, while welcoming the distraction she provided.

“I got asked out
on a date!”

“Again?” Marisa
intoned with exaggerated weariness. “So that makes four for you this week? Hah!
I’m still up on you by one, and remember midnight starts the new week.”

Sometimes Benny
really wondered about the world these two lived in.

“For your
information,” Stacey stuck her tongue out at her partner, “I accepted this
one.”

“Ohhhhhh!” now
Marisa’s face lit with interest. “In that case, spill it, girl! I want
details!”

“It was Deke!”
Stacey squeaked with glee.

“Deke?” the
taller waitress looked puzzled.

“Deke,” the
shorter girl beamed. “He and Harley are taking Harley’s old boat out to Lake
Cowell to test it out, and Deke invited me to come hang out.”

Marisa stared at
her for a second longer before turning back to Benny with an exasperated groan.

“You see,
Benny?” She waved in the other girl’s direction, “She’s as bad as you are!
There are two available rednecks out there. One is tall, hot, with muscles and
a great butt…and she’s excited because the
other
one asked her out!”

“Ha…ha…” Stacey
grinned in return. “So I see you’ve noticed Harley, even if you wouldn’t admit
it.”

“So?” Marisa
shrugged dismissively. “Just because he’s a yahoo doesn’t mean I can’t see he’s
a fine specimen of one. Of course I guess you thought he’s a little too old for
you, huh.”

“I just really
like Deke,” Stacey shrugged with a pleased smile. “He’s nice…if a bit timid.
But I can work on that.”

“Nice
and
timid,” the raven haired waitress groaned. “See, this is what I’m talking
about. Girl, you need to reexamine your criteria.”

“On the other
hand,” Stacey continued, now checking her lipstick in the reflective surface of
the wall mounted paper towel dispenser, “I doubt Harley has a timid bone in his
body. So now that Deke is filling him in on what’s up, I imagine he’ll be
asking you out in the next fifteen minutes or so.”

“I figured he
wasn’t…wait…WHAT!?”

“Well,” Stacey
murmured as she examined the corner of her mouth critically in the reflection.
“You didn’t expect me to go out there on the lake alone with both of them, did
you?”

Marisa stared at
the other girl, eyes and mouth wide with shock. For a moment, it appeared she
had lost the capacity of speech. She stood there in obvious dumbfounded silence
as the smaller waitress smacked her lips at the dispenser, then finally managed
to rally back to the world of the speaking.

“Oh…oh…oh no,
you
didn’t
!”

“You owe
meeeee.” The pert brunette glanced slyly back at her friend. She had the smug
look of somebody who was playing a trump card. “And you knooow it!”

 “Oh don’t
you dare! Not this! Do I look like the type of girl who dates guys named Harley
to you?”

“Youuuu
oowwwweee meeeee!” Stacey sing-songed in a triumphal tone. “Or need I remind
you of your cousin Rueben?”

“That’s not
fair!” A note of desperation entered the dark beauty’s voice. “At least I
mentioned Rueben to you before setting you up with him!”

“Yeah, suuuurrre
you did…but I notice you forgot to mention the glass eye while you were at it.”

“You would have
never noticed,” Marisa responded with an air of injured innocence, “if he
hadn’t taken it out and shown it to you.”

“Which he did on
three different occasions during the picnic. By the way…Ew!”

Now Benny really
wondered about the world these two lived in. He started to be truly glad he
didn’t have daughters. His poor old heart couldn’t take drama like
this…especially not with his wife involved. She had hysterics over the boys as
it was. This would push her to the point of homicide.

“Augh!” The
Latina threw up her arms in dismay. “You’re really going to do this to me,
aren’t you. I can’t believe you!”

“Why not?”

“Seriously? You
don’t see the problem here?”

“You’ll have
fun.”

“Fun?” Marisa
exclaimed. “Fun? Do you hear this Benny? I’m going to have fun! They’re going
to drag me out on the USS Yeehaw and sink us all in the middle of Lake Cowell!
And I’m going to end up in Hell because they only allow rednecks into Heaven
after dying in stupid ways like that! But I’ll have ‘fun!’”

“You’ll be
fine.” Stacey laughed. “Besides, I’m sure if we did sink Harley would rescue
you…and do whatever was necessary to revive you too. But be sure and bring a
swim suit, just in case.”

“In case?”

“Well, it
is
an
old boat.”

“I don’t believe
this!” The tall waitress smacked her palm to her face. “Now
I’m
letting
people walk all over
me
.” With her other hand she stabbed an accusing
finger in the direction of the little janitor. “This is all
your
fault
Benny! You’ve been a bad influence on me! Now look at the mess I’m in. You see
what happens?!”

Benny could only
shrug in dazed confusion. Since he was the only male here, he figured something
would end up being all his fault sooner or later. Forty five years of marriage
had taught him that much. He would work it out later.

“You’ll be
fine,” Stacy soothed, “but I’m sure he’ll be asking soon and I think you just
smudged your eyeliner here.” She pointed to the corner of her right eye.

Marisa gasped
and hurried over to the paper towel dispenser to peer into the mirrored surface.

“Oh crap!” she
blurted out over some microscopic flaw Benny couldn’t even make out. “I’ve got
to fix this! I’ll be in the little girl’s room!”

She hustled down
the back hallway, and disappeared through the employee’s door leading to the
bathrooms in the store side of the truck stop.

“Waitaminute…”
the man called after her, then let his arm fall in resignation after realizing
she was gone.

“And that,”
Stacey brushed her hands off against each other with an air of immense
satisfaction, “takes care of that.”

“But…” Benny
gestured after the departed waitress.

“Oh don’t
worry,” The elfish girl reassured him. “I heard you trying to talk her out of
going after Tomas before I came in.”

“You did?”

“Yep. I’ll go
get him instead, and you don’t have to worry about any scenes.” She pushed open
the back door and stared out into rear parking lot where the rain was just
beginning. “You just stay near the door and open it when I knock. I don’t want
to get wetter than I have to.”

“But…” Benny
watched helplessly as the girl snatched a folded piece of cardboard leaning
against the wall and held it over her head as a makeshift umbrella. 
Without further ado she stepped outside.

“But…” the
little janitor said to nobody in particular.

The door slammed
shut, leaving the man alone.

He stared at the
door, and struggled to catch up on this latest whirlwind of events. Nothing was
ever boring with these two. Confusing maybe, but never boring. This pair of
girls had encounters and escapades that would do any TV sitcom proud. And it
was while shaking his head over that analogy that the end result of this little
episode of the ‘Marisa and Stacey Show’ finally dawned on him.

Now he had to
run the kitchen
and
the dining room all by himself.

###

Stacey Collins – Nightfall

The door fell
shut behind her, leaving Stacey alone in the nighttime expanse of the rear
parking lot.

She did a quick
glance left and right.

The sodium vapor
lamps wore yellow halos against the black sky, and highlighted the streaks of
early raindrops. The asphalt had already started to acquire a shine from the
moisture. It wasn’t quite wet yet, but it soon would be…as evidenced by the
strengthening patter of drops against the cardboard she held over her head.

The storm would be
here any minute.

Still, she took
a few seconds to indulge in a gleeful happy dance.

What had started
to look like another lousy night of fending off complaining customers and
leering truckers had just taken an amazing turn for the awesome. She had just about
given up on Deke working up the nerve to ask her out, so when he came over and
started his awkward little approach it had come as a pleasant surprise. Despite
Harley’s smooth move in distracting Larry, it didn’t take her long to realize
their actions were uncoordinated and this had been practically a spur of the
moment decision.

Which meant
Harley didn’t have a date…

…which meant it
was time for some friendly payback regarding a certain glass eye.

Not that she had
been terribly upset about the Rueben fiasco. In truth, he had been a fairly
nice guy. Besides, her Uncle Tony also had a glass eye and she was already well
immune to that particular stunt. But it was still a little unsporting of Marisa
not to mention it.