Chapter 23: Shocks and Surprises

My mother pulled the minivan into the parking lot. I opened the door, but then leaned back to allow Jason and Leticia to leave the vehicle first. I could see my mother looking across the street and looked in the same direction.

"What?" I asked.

Mom took her fingers off the steering wheel long enough to point at a Pizarro's Pizza place across the street. "Is their pizza any good?" she asked.

"Harrard's is better," Kelsey said. "But they are pretty good."

"I guess I can stop in there and order carryout," Mom mused. "It would be better than driving all over. Mark, are you set with enough money to pay for dinner here?"

"I am," I stated firmly. "And I can pay for Matti too once she shows up."

Mom nodded. "Enjoy. Will you need a ride home when you are done?"

"Mom will pick us up," Ashley said. "I confirmed that before school got out. But she was a bit too busy to give us a ride here."

"It will be nice when you can drive us Ash," I said.

My lover giggled. "I could, but the school has been against giving parking passes to sophomores. That is going to change though. I asked during lunch."

Leticia sighed. "I wasn't allowed to take drivers ed. My mother told me that there was no reason for me to learn to drive."

"Stupid," Jason called as the rest of us climbed out of the minivan. Kelsey jumped into my arms the instant I had my feet on the ground causing Ashley to giggle as she followed me out of the vehicle. She and Jason made sure the doors were closed and then led us toward the entrance to the restaurant.

We got to the door. The restaurant had set up their host's station just outside the door to the bar. A rather stiff man of about forty looked down his nose at us. "I'm sure you have reservations."

"About the food here, never!" Jason quipped.

Letty and Ashley smacked the back of Jason's head with open palms. Kelsey giggled. "In stereo even."

I just shook my head. "No, we did not make reservations. We would like a table for nine out on the patio if possible."

The man glared at me. "I see only five of you standing here."

Just then Millie ran up to join our group. "Jessica and Kathy are on their way. Kathy was having a bit of trouble getting out of the SUV."

I just smiled at the man who nodded. "Very well," he said. "We had not planned on opening the patio for a couple hours. Service might be a bit slow."

"We can live with that," I said watching the rest of my group nod.

The man looked down his nose at us. He pointedly scanned the jeans that Jason and I were wearing and then sniffed. He muttered something about how teenagers don't care about proper dress when dining out as he turned. He then led us on a path that stayed outside the building, leading to the dining patio. He got there and pointed to two circular tables at the edge of the area. "I can't place you at a single table out here, but these two tables are close together."

"They will be fine," Jason said as he claimed one of the two seats that was between the tables. He pointed at the other chair between the tables. "Letty you can sit here, that way Mark and Jessica can each claim a table."

I moved to claim the table that Jason was sitting at. The host found an extra chair and set it next to Jason as Ashley sat to my right and Kelsey to my left. Jessica was sitting at the other table with Kathy and Millicent flanking her.

Ashley had to twist her body to look at the street, but she quickly pointed. "Walter's rumor was definitely getting around. I don't think there is an empty chair over there."

Millie giggled. "That place is packed!"

The host frowned, but ignored our comments. "Your server will be Lenore. Do you want water?"

I nodded. "Please, could we have water for all of us?"

The man bowed stiffly and then turned to leave. Jessica waited until he had entered the restaurant through an open sliding door and then giggled. "He forgot to give us menus."

"I know what I want," Jason said. "They have great prime rib here. I want the eight ounce cut with a side of mashed potatoes and gravy."

Letty sighed at that. "Oh that does sound heavenly. Does that come with a salad?"

"Usually," I replied. "I hope Matti doesn't have trouble finding us."

"What about her order?" Jason asked.

"She'll want the fire-cracker chicken this place specializes in. And we should get the deep-fried onion as an appetizer. She loves those," Kelsey chirped.

"I'm not kissing Kathy if she has onion breath," Jessica muttered.

"Oh, but if you have it as well?" Kathy replied merrily.

Everyone laughed. We were laughing and watching the crowd at the supposed pickup spot. Our distraction was complete, and we did not realize our server was standing there until she cleared her throat loudly. We all turned to look at her.

My jaw dropped fast enough to put a hole in the table. The woman standing there was tall, and willowy. Her jet-black hair was in tight curls, but still tumbled down her back in a merry riot of tangled locks. She had a small oval face with a perfect upturned nose and deep green eyes. Ashley poked me in the leg before I could look away from her face. "Down boy!" she whispered. "We're here for a meal."

The woman looked around the table. "I was told there would be nine. You seem to be missing a person."

"My sister Matti is still on her way," I admitted. "And we need menus. But I think we can all give drink orders."

The rest of the group nodded as the woman reached into a pouch that was tied around her waist. "I can take those," she said.

The orders went around the table. Just about all of the group choose to order lemonade or iced tea with only Jason selecting cola. The woman smiled when I added an extra lemonade for Matti. "I'll go and get you some menus," she said. "I am Lenore, and I'll be your server, but I also have my tables inside. I hope you won't need too much attention."

Millie reached out to grab Jessica. "Oh look isn't that Horace! He's almost as bad as Walter. I notice he doesn't have anyone with him."

"Can he even get in the door?" Kelsey asked. "That rumor must have spread everywhere. I see business men and women trying to fight their way inside."

I had looked over at Millie's shout to see what had excited her. Once I had noticed the crowds I turned back to look at our server to find that she had disappeared. Ashley reached out to touch my arm. "She is pretty."

"I shouldn't have gaped like that," I said. "I have you and Kelsey and I still was just sitting there stunned by her beauty."

"What was a beauty like that doing here?" Jason asked. "She could be modeling."

I shrugged and glanced back at the crowds. The press of people in the store had grown enough that someone must have called the authorities, because two cop cars were pulling into the parking lot. I could hear a voice calling something out over a loudspeaker, but it was aimed at the windows across the street and I could not make out the words.

I turned back to the table just in time for our server to return. She was carrying a tray full of drinks. She distributed the drinks and then lifted a stack of menus that had been under the drinks. As she handed out the drinks she looked out across the street. "What is all the excitement over there? I've never seen that place this busy."

I peeked at the time and saw that it was about twenty to four. "Well, if rumor is correct, the Defense Forces will be making a pickup of volunteers over there in about twenty minutes."

"Really?" our waitress said hopefully.

"No," I replied. "Not that the rumor doesn't exist, but there will not be a pickup. That's why we are over here. We wanted to watch..." I paused.

Jessica was less diplomatic. "We know some of the people who were exchanging the rumor and felt like watching so we could have a good laugh tomorrow when there isn't a pickup."

The woman sighed. "I wouldn't mind being picked up."

I turned to look at her. "Why wouldn't you?' I asked.

She frowned and then reached into the pouch at her waist. She pulled out what looked like a small wallet and carefully unfolded it. She held out the open wallet to reveal two pictures; one of a newborn baby, the second of a girl that might have been about three years old.

Ashley started gushing. "Oh, how adorable! Is this the same baby or do you have two?"

The waitress smiled. "Just my little Angelique. I keep the baby picture to remind me not to be taken in by shallow words and silver baubles."

"What happened?" Millie asked as I opened my menu to see if the surf and turf selection I wanted was available. It was, so I quickly reclosed the menu. I could see others doing the same as Matti ran up to claim the empty chair.

"Sorry," my sister said. "Traffic is a bit crazy, and Mrs. Feris finally had to turn into the mall and drive through the parking lot. What is the cause?"

Kelsey pointed at the crowd still trying to get into the restaurant across the street. The police had stationed men at all the entrances and were trying to force people to leave, as more continued to arrive.

Jessica looked up at the waitress. "I think we can start ordering? What is the soup of the day though, as that might change some people's minds."

"Oh," the waitress aid snapping out of here reverie from watching the crowds. "I'm so bad. My name is Lenore and I'll be serving you. Tonight, the special is a bread encrusted sea bass. Our master chef takes spiced garlic bread and toasts it to perfection before crumbling it over a grilled sea bass; this comes with asparagus spears and your choice of soup or salad. Tonight for soup we have a hearty clam chowder or a light minestrone."

"Well done," Kathy said causing Lenore to blush. "I want the grilled walnut chicken and I'll take minestrone for the soup."

The ordering went around the table. Lenore was clearly struggling a bit, but Jessica and I worked to ease her troubles. She visibly let out a huge sigh of relief once Matti offered up the final order. With a nod she turned and left us alone at the table.

Once she was inside the restaurant I looked at the others. "If she makes a mistake, let's be polite. She seems a bit timid and I get a feeling she'll lose her job if we complain."

Millie frowned. "But why would we want to accept bad service."