Chapter 46

The Hamburger Hamlet was a sit-down restaurant with booths. Unlike Don’s in Bellefontaine, it had waitresses. Many of the waitresses would never have got a job in Bellefontaine, they were black! They were also good at their job and cheerful while doing it.

Nina was at a table with three friends, but they scooted another table up to it so I could join them. This also opened up seating for two more to join us which promptly happened. Nina was with three girls, I was joined by two guys. It was like they had wanted to join the girls, but afraid to ask. Nina introduced me around. Even to the guys.

The girls had a hot round of gossip going so I talked to the guys, Rob and Bob. They immediately reminded me of the two Toms in Bellefontaine. Here Bob was the class clown. I figured that out when he grabbed a bunch of straws and tore one end off. He then would blow into the straw, launching the wrapper towards kids at other tables.

They basically ignored him unless he got a good hit. That lasted until one of the waitresses slapped him lightly up the side of his head.

“Bobbie, how many times have I told you not to do that? Now get up and pick up all those wrappers or I will tell your parents later.”

It seemed Bob’s parents were frequent customers and the waitresses weren’t going to put up with his nonsense.

Bob retrieved the straw wrappers while getting mostly good-natured comments from his classmates about crawling on the floor.

One of the girls remarked, “Bob that is the second Friday in a row you have done this, it is time for you to grow up.”

From the look on Bob’s face, I knew this story. Bob had been trying to get her attention. He had, just not in the way he wanted to.

You could see Bob swell up to make a smart remark, which would have been anything but smart. He was sitting at the end of the table next to me so I distracted him by grabbing his arm and told him.

“Bob, Natalie is right you need some new material.”

He looked at me like a deer in the headlights.

I continued, “Natalie cares enough to notice what you are doing, don’t bore or embarrass her by being repetitive.”

I wasn’t going to criticize him for shooting straw wrappers across the room, which was good fun. However, he had achieved his objective, and now had to move on, or in this case, move in on Natalie.

Bob was smart enough to shut up. Well at least change the subject. He started telling us about how a friend of a cousin out in Riverside had seen two guys pull a trick on the cops. They had crept behind a patrol car that was sitting near a pole waiting on speeders. They put a heavy-duty cable around the rear axle and the pole, locking it in place.

They went back to their car and sped past the cop car. The cops started chasing them until it reached the end of the one hundred foot cable which promptly stopped the car by the rear axle. The front end of the car kept going. Everyone at the table was listening to the story by the time he was finished.

I didn’t burst his bubble by telling him that I had heard it had happened down the road from Bellefontaine in Urbana or how my Uncle Wally said it was done by the brother of a guy he knew back in the 1930s. The one thing in common with all the stories, it wasn’t anyone they knew directly, and it had happened elsewhere.

It still made a good story and I bet it would work, at least in a movie someday.

We ate burgers, surprise! We talked about nothing, well the latest Hollywood gossip which seemed strange because the girls in Bellefontaine discussed the Hollywood gossip. The only difference here was the kids personally knew the players and some of them were parents of those present.

When it was time to leave I found that Nina had ridden with one of the other girls and would be delighted to have me take her home. She gave directions and the next thing I knew we were parked high above the lights of Los Angeles. There was a line of cars parked there not that close to each other, but still quite a few. One thing led to another and we were panting pretty hard when she broke away and told me we had better get home.

I asked her if she had a curfew and she told me, “No, I’m afraid of what I want you to do.”

What can you say to that, no comment that I could think of would do anything but cause trouble so I kept my mouth shut? I was finding that to be a good tactic with women.

As we were leaving a police car on patrol pulled up and started chasing the other parked cars out. I asked if the police ever arrested anyone.