Chapter 20

Ed returned from school exhausted. His boss, Nevada, pressured him into taking the promotion that he had been offered. Working full time, and going to school part-time, was about to kill him. He wished that John was home, but he was off in Austin doing something that he was keeping very secret. He had an early class Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and two late classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

After wandering into the kitchen, he realized that he didn’t have anything in the house ready to eat. He didn’t feel like taking the half hour to cook and the time to clean up afterwards. Kelly and Beth were working tonight so he was on his own as far as dinner was concerned. It wasn’t that he expected either one to cook for him, it was just that cooking for one was such a hassle.

Driven by his hunger, he headed over to Maria’s Cantina. His plan was to get a couple of tacos and then head home to get some much needed sleep. The relationship with Maria and Rosa had improved significantly. He could probably get them to rush the order. At least this way, he’d be in bed in less than an hour.

Entering the restaurant, he was surprised to find people waiting for tables. He looked over at Maria and with a wink asked, “So who am I going to have to beat up to get a table?”

Maria laughed at the joke. There was a time when she wouldn’t have laughed. She answered, “Oh, its not that bad, just a twenty minute wait.”

While Maria laughed, a number of other patrons looked around nervously. Too many of them still viewed Ed as a bully and feared that they would be intimidated into leaving. Ed noticed, but decided not to make an issue of it. Instead, he said, “If you can’t fit me in, I’ll eat at the bar.”

Maria was about to say that it would be alright, when a very loud sob arose from behind her. Turning, she saw Sherry, hands held over her eyes, crying as she ran off the to restroom. Staring at the retreating figure, Ed wondered what was the matter. As he turned to ask Maria, Jim came storming over to him. His face was flushed red, the vein in his forehead throbbed, and his hands were clutched into fists. Trembling in rage, Jim shouted, “If you ever say anything nasty about my wife again, I’ll kill you.”

Ed had no idea what he had done. There was a time when he never missed a chance to belittle her, but that was a long time in the past. It was then that he realized he had not seen Jim or Sherry for more than a year. He glanced at Maria as if to ask what had he done. There was no answer there, as she just shrugged her shoulders as puzzled as Ed.

Looking at Jim, he asked, “What did I say?”

Snarling, Jim retorted, “You know what you said, you bastard.”

Deciding that he didn’t really want to deal with the situation at the current time, Ed looked over at Maria and said, “I think it would be better if I leave.”

Very surprised by Jim’s behavior, she nodded her agreement. She had not heard Ed say anything to Jim or Sherry, but she wasn’t going to step in front of Jim. Feeling sorry for Ed at what was basically an unfair accusation, she said, “I’m sorry, but I agree.”

Stepping closer to Ed, Jim continued to vent his rage. He screamed, “You had better go.”

Knowing that talking to Jim in that mood was not going to help the situation, Ed did the best that he could to prevent an escalation of the situation. With a curt nod of his head, Ed replied, “I’m leaving.”

Jim followed Ed to the door. Even as Ed headed out of the restaurant, he shouted, “Get out of here!”

As the door closed behind Ed, he looked back at the restaurant in total dismay. Shoulders sagging as if the spirit had been sucked out of his body, he headed towards the bar hoping that he could at least get a sandwich there. As he walked, he thought about how he should have responded to Jim’s bitter attack. In hindsight, he didn’t see how he could have done anything different. The real problem was that he felt that he had deserved that kind of treatment from Jim for a long time. Jim and Sherry would hate him forever.

At the bar, Shirley took one look at Ed and knew that he was down. Before he reached the counter, she had a glass of Coke ready for him. As he sat down, he asked, “Any chance of getting a sandwich?”

Shaking her head to reinforce her answer, she replied, “No. They’re closed for the night. Why don’t you go over to Maria’s Cantina?”

“I got chased out of there,” replied Ed. Taking a sip of his Coke, he tried to decide what to do for dinner. He guessed that the only real option was the diner near where he worked. He should have stopped at one of the places on the way home from school.

At the news that Ed had been chased out of Maria’s Cantina, Shirley looked at Ed in surprise. He had been so nice the past year that she couldn’t imagine him causing a problem. In fact, the relationship between Ed with Maria had become pretty solid. Concerned, she asked, “What did you do?”

“I don’t know. I was talking to Maria when out of the blue Jim climbed all over me. Rather than make more of a scene, I left.” Ed shook his head, trying to figure out what happened at the restaurant.

“You have no idea what you did?” Knowing the history among Ed, Jim and Sherry, she could understand how that would blow up. One slip of the tongue about Sherry and Ed would have a very angry Jim in his face. Ed’s comments about Sherry had chased Jim and Sherry out of her bar years ago.

Shaking his head, Ed answered, “No, but it doesn’t matter. I’ve deserved that from him for a long time. I just excused myself and left rather than make a scene. I’m only surprised that it took this long for him to express his hatred for me.”

“You’re being too hard on yourself, Ed. I know that in the past that you were a bully, but you’ve changed a lot.” Shirley looked at Ed with compassion realizing that he felt very bad about past. She was also surprised that he had taken such a passive position with Jim.

“No, I’m not being too hard on myself. If you hurt someone too many times, you can expect never to be forgiven. I stepped way over the line with Jim and Sherry. They are quite right to hate me.” Ed thought back to some of the things he had done to Sherry. There for a while, when ever he had seen her he had asked her if she was expecting triplets. The first time she had asked why and he had replied that he thought she was pregnant because of how fat she was. She had been indignant the first time. After that, every time he asked her the question she broke out in tears.

It hurt him to think of how many names he had called her over the years. If it harm none, then do it. Protect the weak from the strong. How many years had he been the strong that took advantage of the weak? How many times had he taken actions that harmed others? It had been too many times and now he had to pay for it.

Looking at Ed, Shirley knew there was nothing she would be able to say that would change his mind. In fact, she could understand it if Jim and Sherry never forgave Ed. His treatment of her had been very nasty over the years. Rather than deny the accuracy of his assessment, she said, “You may be right.”

“There’s no may about it. I am right.” Ed finished his Coke and paid for it. Shirley watched him leave the bar, sad that she couldn’t do anything to help him. In the past year she had become rather fond of him, perhaps too fond. He had come up with the idea for the sandwiches and that had increased her lunch and dinner business significantly. He had helped Manuel improve his business.

Tired, hungry, and upset Ed left the bar for his house in order to get his truck. He was going to have to drive over to the diner for his dinner. It would be at least another hour and a half before he would get home to bed.

It was a half an hour later before Ed reached the diner. Entering, he was pleased to find that Linda was waiting tables that night. He sat down at one of her tables and waited for her to come over to take his order. While he waited, he thought about Jim and Sherry. His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of Linda. She said, “Hey, Ed what are you doing here, tonight?”

“I got chased out of my usual place tonight,” replied Ed.

Smiling at Ed, Linda asked, “Chased?”

Shrugging his shoulders, Ed replied, “Yes, chased. For years I harassed a woman because she was fat and married to a very successful handsome man. I said horrible things to her, usually about her weight. Now, I haven’t seen her in more than year, I guess they have been avoiding me. Anyway, I was talking to someone else and her husband started yelling at me about how mean I’ve been to his wife. I just left rather than make a scene.”

“Oh, wow, so what are you going to do about it?”

“I don’t know what to do. I was so mean to her, that I don’t see how I can make amends,” answered Ed.

Shrugging, she said, “You could start by apologizing.”

The idea of apologizing had not occurred to Ed, particularly since he considered his past actions unforgivable. He said, “There’s no way an apology will fix the damage that I’ve done.”

“It can’t hurt,” replied Linda. She had been in a lot of situations in her past where she had bought an apology even for pretty horrific offenses. On three separate occasions she had taken back a boyfriend that beat her, only accepting that he wouldn’t change after the fourth time. The woman might never trust Ed, but maybe her husband wouldn’t be hostile.

“I’ve said some pretty mean things to her, but I’ll apologize. I don’t expect it to do too much good, but I’ll give it a try.”

Linda asked, “What are you having tonight?”

“I’ll try some of the stew. I think that you guys have some of the best stew around.” Ed replied remembering the last time that he had stew here.

Linda looked thoughtful for a moment and then said, “It’s not so good today. Why don’t you try the meatloaf? It’s pretty good tonight.”

Surprised Ed asked, “What’s wrong with the stew?”

“It’s been sitting there for a while,” replied Linda. The stew had been made for lunch and they were going to throw it out soon.

Ed said, “Okay, I’ll go with the meatloaf. Thanks for the recommendation.”

Linda walked off with to submit the order to the cook. As she left, Ed thought about how she had steered him away from the stew. There was a time when she probably would have recommended it to him knowing that it wasn’t very good. That had been one of the major changes in his life, he was getting much better treatment by others around him.

He thought about how to apologize to Sherry and Jim. After a lot of thought, he realized that he should wait to apologize to Jim until after he had apologized to Sherry. She was the injured party and it was her feelings that had to be healed first. Of course, he felt that was impossible.

Linda came back to the table with his meatloaf and a large glass of iced tea. Setting the food down on the table, she said, “Let me know how you like it.”

The meatloaf tasted very good. In fact, it was the best that he ever had. It wasn’t too dry or too greasy, but managed to maintain the appropriate amount of moisture. He looked up at Linda and said, “This is outstanding. Usually I have to drown meatloaf in catsup, but this is really very good.”

Smiling at Ed, Linda said, “I’m glad you like it. The cook just changed his recipe and what ever he’s doing now is really good.”

“It is really outstanding. Give the cook my complements.” Ed was really impressed. Although he occasionally had meatloaf, it was not a meal that he ordered often. This particular meatloaf could easily become an exception.

Linda replied, “I’ll tell him you like it.”

After Linda left, Ed started eating his meal. Of course, the sides were mashed potatoes with gravy and Broccoli. Someone, somewhere, was going to have to stop that trend of having Broccoli as side dish. While there are some individuals that like Broccoli, having it every time you ate out got old very quickly. Even boiled carrots would be better on occasion.

As he ate, Linda came and refilled his iced tea. He smiled and gestured to her since he had just taken a bite of his food. He wasn’t sure if waitresses did that on purpose or not. There were good reasons to wait for the customers not to be able to talk when you came to the table. They wouldn’t get drawn into a conversation and fail to take care of other customers. Thinking it over, that was a very good reason to make sure the customer wasn’t able to engage them in conversation.

While he ate, he thought about his day. It had been a pretty bad day. Nevada wouldn’t give up on getting him into a position with more responsibility and hours. As much as he was enjoying school, it was wearing him out. He replayed the scene at Maria’s Cantina over and over in his mind trying to figure out what set off Jim. The guy was furious at him as though he had done something to them at that moment. He just couldn’t figure out what he had done.

He finished his meal and pushed the plate away, satisfied with the meal. Taking a sip of his tea, he felt much better than when he had walked in here. Still tired, he wasn’t hungry and was not quite so upset about the episode with Jim. He would talk to Maria about the incident and find out if there was some way that they could prevent such an incident in the future.

Seeing that Ed was done eating, Linda came over to the table to see if he wanted anything else. Looking at the plate, she noticed that he had left half of the Broccoli uneaten. She asked, “You didn’t like the Broccoli?”

Shrugging Ed answered, “Every time I eat out, it’s always Broccoli. I’m tired of it. I’d love to have spinach, brussel sprouts, green beans, or corn as a side dish.”

Linda looked at Ed for a second. This was not the first time that she had heard customers complaining about Broccoli. She said, “Maybe you can talk to the manager and get the menu changed.”

“I figure there’s a good reason why all restaurants serve Broccoli as a side dish. I doubt that customer demand is the reason,” replied Ed. He had discussed this issue once with John and they had speculated that it had to do with ease of storage and price. Of course, neither one had the facts to back up that conclusion.