Chapter 44

We discussed where to go out to eat. Laurie was a little young to appreciate Perlione's or the country club. Jack suggested Home Town Buffet and told Laurie how she take her own plate around and put whatever she wanted to eat on it. That sold her on it and she started hounding everybody, asking "Can we go now?" every couple of minutes or so.

Daddy finally got up after twenty minutes of this. "Honey, why don't we meet you over there? We'll take Laurie to the restaurant and get started."

"OK, Daddy."

Laurie gave me and Jack kisses, then ran back into the kitchen as Daddy and Wanda started to leave with her to give Bozo kisses, too. He was all set to follow her when Jack told him to stay where he was.

We cleaned up the kitchen after they were gone. I held out the waste basket for Jack to throw the peach pit in but he just smiled, said "No, thanks," and put it in his pocket.

By my count, it was 45 minutes before the phone started ringing. Mary said they were ready and they'd meet us out at the car.

We got down to the car and it looked like they both just got out of the shower. Mary's hair was still wet. Jack said to her, "What's the matter, did the water turn cold?"

Mary hit him on the shoulder. "Pig!" And then she mumbled, "Yes."

Charlie just stood next to Mary, his arm around her shoulders and a big smile on his face. She was snuggled into him, under his arm, both hands around his waist. She had that fresh fucked look that everyone from automobile designers to perfumers to drug researchers have been attempting to duplicate forever.

I twisted around in my seat as we started towards the restaurant. "Did your mom tell you what's happening?"

"Pretty much. I guess your mom has cancer and you've got a new sister."

"She's not my mom."

"Come on, Jill, you know what I mean."

"Yeah, Mary, I know what you mean. I know what everybody means. The problem is, none of you will take the time or the effort to see what I mean. That woman is no more a mother to me than, I don't know, than Sara is. She bore me, stuck around a couple of years and then split. She didn't even have the guts to say anything; she just left a note saying she couldn't take it any more and had to leave. Your mother has been more of a mother to me than she'll ever be."

Mary said, "I'm sorry. I didn't realize."

"Mary, I'm not mad at you. It's just the way this society is. Blood is everything, no matter what that person did or didn't do. Throw in a couple of bucks a month to the deserted child and that parent is practically a god. She gave up the right to be my mother when she took off thirteen years ago. I know it's not politically correct but the fact that she's dying now doesn't change that."

Charlie said, "What about the little girl?"

"She's a doll. It took me a while to get over the shock of finding out about her and we aren't that close. She has Jack wrapped around her finger and Bozo's ready to follow her anywhere."

Mary said, "You're not ignoring her because of..."

"Her mother? Probably. I'm sure a shrink wouldn't have to dig real deep to find some of that. But to be honest, when Daddy told me I had a sister, I was trying to figure out who Daddy could have gotten pregnant. I was busy trying to understand everything and Jack picked up the slack. At least she doesn't have any problem with men. She was in heaven, sitting on his lap while he fed her. And she was thrilled that her 'Daddy John' bought her a new dress.

"Anyway, you'll meet her in a few minutes at the restaurant. So how are you guys doing?"

Mary turned a little pink and said, "Fine."

"I can see that. Hell, you practically lit up the whole street. I notice you met us out at the car instead of coming up. Are you having a hard time walking?"

"Jill!!!"

"Oh, knock it off, Mary. It's obvious the two of you have been fucking your brains off since we got home last night. You been using muscles and parts of your body that haven't been used before. And if they have been used, not to the degree you have over the last day. So, are you feeling OK?"

"Pretty much. I'm a little sore."

Charlie pulled her closer and started to say something in her ear.

"Charles Dandridge! Don't you dare apologize to her. That 'little sore' Mary feels is a badge of honor and any woman would be proud to wear it. So let her have it. She would have told you to stop if it was a real problem. Just take 'No' for an answer if she's too sore to do anything for the next day or so. And be real gentle if she tries to convince you she's OK."

Jack said, "You think you're sore now. Wait till you get tailpiped."

Mary got a confused look on her face, then realized what Jack meant. She slapped the back of his head hard enough to make it snap over to the side.

She looked at me. "Really?"

I didn't say anything. I just nodded.

Mary took her time as we walked into the restaurant. We got in line and I looked over the glass partition into the seating area. Daddy looked back and motioned us over to him. We passed the line of people and I pointed in Daddy's direction when we got near the woman taking the money. She smiled and said, "That's all right. You go right ahead, Honey."

The Home Town Buffet is one of three restaurant chains that are in 36 states and are owned by the same corporation. I got that from an ad that was in a plastic holder on our table. You know, the kind where Denny's advertises the latest pie or breakfast. They have set prices for adults, children and seniors. Once you pay, you can eat as much of anything that's being served as you can hold. There are several two sided buffet centers; the kind with glass spit-covers and big trays of food. They have several types of salad plus just about every topping you can think of and six or eight different dressings. There are also potato, macaroni, tuna and other salads and a couple of different soups. Then there are the faux Italian and Mexican sections with the food guaranteed not to be spicy. The hottest thing is one salsa in the taco section that could be labeled 'medium' in the grocery store.

The are usually two headline meats. These could be roast beef, ham, turkey, prime rib. These are at one end of the buffet counter and there's somebody dressed in white with a chef's hat to slice it for you. The rest of the table has trays of whatever goes with the meat such as potatoes, peas, corn, beans, maybe a vegetable casserole, stuffing or sweet potatoes. There is a desert table with slices of pie, cake, puddings, custard, etc, either on pie plates or in small bowls. Nearby is soft serve ice cream or frozen yogurt with whatever you want to sprinkle on it. If you're into fruit, you can get grapes, melon, oranges or whatever fruit is in season. The beverage section has soft drinks, coffee, hot water and several types of tea bags.

I took a look around and spotted three main types of client. I don't know if the fact that it was Sunday night had anything to do with it or not but there were a lot of old people there. I'd noticed them when we came in because there was a little old lady at the head of the line, waving a coupon and explaining to the clerk about the senior discount. The next group was families. With food prices the way they are, it's not that much more than Jack in the Box or MacDonald's and the food is probably a whole lot better for you. The third group was the high school guys and their girlfriends. It's as if the guys felt duty bound to eat as many plates of as many different foods as possible while most of the girls nibbled on a salad.

We got to the table and Wanda introduced Charlie and Mary to Laurie. Laurie seemed pretty excited with the restaurant. She was sitting on a booster seat that brought her up high enough to eat off a plate on the table. She had a half empty glass of lemonade and her plate was almost clean. There were remnants of four or five things and a small scoop of cole slaw that looked like it had a partial forkful missing.

I looked at Wanda. "Looks like Laurie did pretty good."

"Oh, yeah. She doesn't like cole slaw, though. I told her we'd get small portions for her to try and she could get more of anything she liked."

Jack was on one knee next to Laurie. "Do you want more of anything?"

She pointed at an orange-yellow stain on her plate. "Getty"

Wanda said, "She loves her spaghetti."

Jack said, "Can you show Jill and me what to do?"

Laurie held out her arms and said, "OK. It's not hard."

Jack picked her up and Laurie ended up facing forward, kneeling on Jack's arm, one of her arms around his neck. She directed him over to the first buffet table. Jack took a tray and put a couple of plates and some silverware on it. Normally that second plate would be mine. I got a tray and put my own stuff on it.

Laurie got her Getty. She wanted nachos so Jack checked to make sure the cheese sauce was bland enough for her, first by tasting it himself, then by letting her taste it. She wanted to sit in his arms and taste everything then, until he cut her off. Laurie ended up with her spaghetti, nachos, a bowl of grapes, cantaloupe and watermelon slices and some mashed potatoes with beef gravy on them. Jack and I got some food from the Italian and Mexican sections, then roast beef, potatoes and vegetables. Jack had mashed potatoes with gravy, just like his new girlfriend. I tried some potatoes au gratin. Good, but not the quality I'd had at the country club.