Chapter 37

Harold Derkins was the first guest to arrive. In fact, he arrived an hour before the party was supposed to begin. Unnerved at the idea that people would arrive before he was ready for them, Dan opened the doors and let him in. He didn’t bother to relock the doors.

Harold stepped in and looked around the room smiling. He took in the odd assortment of tables, the mural, the pizza station, and the thousands of other little details. It was a very different kind of place from his first restaurant, but he liked it.

Nodding his head, he said, “It looks great.”

“Thanks,” Dan said.

“How are you feeling?”

Dan answered, “Terrified.”

Harold laughed and said, “I know exactly what you mean. I was in your position thirty-six years ago. I remember it just like it was yesterday.”

“I don’t know why I’m so nervous about today. The grand opening is tomorrow,” Dan said.

Understanding exactly what Dan was feeling, Harold nodded his head and said, “I had a pre-opening party at my first place, also. I wanted to show all of my friends and family what I was doing. I was so proud of that little place and so afraid that people would laugh at me. Who was I to dare to dream?

“On the day of the party, I came in early and paced around the restaurant like a mad man. I was busy checking everything three times. It seemed to me like everything that could go wrong was going to go wrong. I nearly drove the staff to quit and I hadn’t even opened the doors yet. Do you know what happened?”

“What?” Dan asked.

“Everyone came and we had a good time,” Harold answered in a matter of fact voice.

Dan gave a nervous laugh and said, “That’s a rather anti-climactic ending to the story.”

“That’s my point,” Harold said with a chuckle. He put a hand on Dan’s shoulder and steered him to a table. Looking over at one of the waitresses, he said, “Two root beers, please.”

As Sandra scurried off to get the two root beers, Harold led Dan to one of the dining room tables. After the pair had taken seats, Harold said, “Now tell me everything that you’ve done to get to this point and I’ll let you know if you’ve forgotten anything.”

Dan started telling about everything he had been doing that day. As he voiced his fears, Harold reassured him that they were little fears rather than monsters hiding under the bed. Ann and Sally arrived and sat down at the table with them. They listened as Dan and Harold talked about the restaurant business. It seemed to them that they hadn’t seen Dan so relaxed in days.

About ten minutes before the party was scheduled to begin, Harold said, “Sitting here talking about food has made me hungry. How’s this supposed to work?”

Dan led Harold over to the pizza station and explained the process. Harold picked out the toppings for a personal sized pizza, while Dan prepared his order. He handed the pizza, on a paddle, to Kevin to cook. He turned back to find that Ann and Sally were in line as well. He fixed their orders, and looked up to see that Ellen had shown up.

She came over and said, “This looks great.”

“Thanks,” Dan said.

“I see that Daddy is here,” Ellen said. She knew that he had come an hour before opening to help settle Dan’s nerves.

Appreciating what her father had done for him, Dan said, “He’s quite a man. I owe him a lot.”

“I’m rather fond of him,” Ellen said with a smile. She looked around observing that more people had started to arrive. She said, “You should get out from behind the counter and greet your friends as they arrive.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Dan said. He turned to find Sandra beside him.

Sandra said, “I’ll work the pizza station.”

“Thanks, I’ll send someone over later to relieve you,” Dan said.

Smiling, Sandra said, “Take your time. I’ve been looking forward to this for weeks.”

Dan stepped out from behind the counter, and looked around at the small crowd. There were already more than twenty people there and the place still looked empty. His parents and Diana had already arrived. They were walking around the room examining the mural and laughing at the individual little scenes shown in it.

His dad spotted him before he got there. He grabbed his son in a hug and patted him on the back. With obvious pride in his voice, he said, “I’m so proud of you, Son.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Dan said. He thought back to the night he heard his father expressing his fears about Dan’s future. He wasn’t the same person as he had been that night.

His mother hugged him and, with tears of joy in her eyes, she said, “This place is so cute. I love it.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Dan said.

Diana smiled over at him and asked, “Can I have a job?”

Dan laughed and said, “I still need an Igor. Every mad scientist and businessman since Frankenstein has needed a hunchbacked assistant.”

“I’ll take the job,” Diana said. When he laughed, she said, “I’m serious.”

“We’ll talk about it, tomorrow,” Dan said not believing she would actually show up to work.

“Great,” Diana said. She was going to help her brother succeed even if she had to show up looking like a hunchback.

There was a huge commotion at the front door. Dan didn’t even need to turn around to know who it was. He grinned and said, “Tom’s parents have arrived. I think the party is about to begin.”

As his family laughed, Dan went over to greet Tom’s parents. Much to his surprise, Tom was there grinning from ear to ear. Tom rushed over and hugged his friend.

He said, “I just couldn’t miss this.”

“It’s great to see you,” Dan said, amazed to see Tom standing there.

“You did it,” Tom said looking around. He said, “You really did it. I’m so proud of you. I knew you would do it. This is so great.”

“Thanks, Tom. It was your idea,” Dan said remembering the day when Tom had brought up the idea of the pizzeria at the video store. Back then it was just an idea to sell pizzas.

There was a huge belly laugh from the men’s bathroom that carried through the whole room.

Tom said, “That’s weird.”

“Wait until you go in there. You’ll piss on your shoes,” Dan said with a wink.

Harold came out of the bathroom laughing so hard he could barely walk. He staggered over to Ellen wiping the tears from his eyes. After years of dealing with graffiti in restaurant bathrooms, he had never seen anything that funny. Pointing towards the door, he said, “Ellen, you’ve got to see what’s written over the urinal.”

His behavior was odd enough that a couple of people had to check it out. Soon the sound of laughter from the bathrooms could be heard. Curiosity aroused, Tom said, “I’ve got to see that.”

Dan watched Tom head towards the bathroom. He went over to Ann and said, “Your mural is a big hit. I think Harold really liked your flush twice sign.”

“Thanks. I loved every minute of doing it,” Ann said. She had watched as people walked around the room making comments about the little scenes in it. Every smile was applause. Every laugh was a standing ovation. Every time someone called out for someone to check something out, it was an outstanding review.

“Thank you for doing it. It really does complete the pizzeria,” Dan said giving her a hug.

Impressed by what he had seen, James Vic came over and said, “This really looks great!.”

“Thanks,” Dan said. “I heard that you recently joined Foreman General Contracting.”

“You heard right,” James said shaking his head. He still couldn’t believe that he was now the number two man in the largest general contracting outfit in the area. He said, “I can’t believe that you gave me the job so that Peter Foreman could watch me work.”

“I think you’ll like working with him. You two are a lot alike,” Dan said.

“I have to agree with you. After leaving here, we had a long talk about the business. It was amazing. We see eye to eye on everything,” James said. The two men had talked the entire afternoon and evening. Both men had walked away from that meeting agreeing that they owed Dan a debt of gratitude.

“I thought you were a good match,” Dan said.

Gesturing to the elderly couple with him, James said, “Let me introduce you to my parents. They helped me get into the business.”

After the introductions were over, James led his parents over to the pizza station. Before long the three of them were eating at one of the patio tables.

Dan glanced over at the picnic tables. Eric and a couple of people from the CERT team were sitting there sharing a large pizza. From the way that Eric was gesturing, it was obvious to Dan that he was telling the story about the tornado. Rolling his eyes, he headed over there to tell his version of the events.

Dan never made it over to the picnic table. Pat reached him first. She greeted him with a great big hug that lifted him off the ground. Betty was smiling at the shocked expression on his face. When Pat let him down, she said, “Welcome to the exciting world of small business! You’re going to love it, and you’re going to hate it; but you’ll go to bed every night, knowing that you’ve built something of which you can be proud.”

“Thanks, Pat,” Dan said.

Betty said, “You’ll worry about it like it was your baby, but when all is said and done, you’ll love every minute of it.”

“Thanks, Betty,” Dan said.

“Now, get your hands off my girl before I have to get rough,” Betty said. Dan laughed and went over to her. As he gave her a hug, she said, “That’s better.”

Pat asked, “Where’s your mother?”

Dan looked around and spotted his parents over by the mural. They were in front of the scene where the people were swinging from the trees being observed by a bunch of monkeys with cameras.

He pointed to them and said, “Over there. Why?”

“I owe her a favor,” Pat said with a wink. She headed over there leaving Betty behind.

Betty laughed and said, “I think your father is in for one hell of a shock.”

“Why?” Dan asked.

“He has dreams of a threesome, but I don’t think Pat is exactly the third he’s dreaming of,” Betty said. She laughed and said, “I’ve got to see this.”

Dan shook his head thinking about how his father was going to react. He looked around and spotted Sue checking out the mural. Chewing on her knuckles, Ann was watching Sue from halfway across the room. While the reaction of the public was one thing, the reaction of another artist to her work was an entirely different matter.

He wanted to go over and support Ann, but Captain Dawson who was in charge of the CERT training stopped him. In a gruff voice, he said, “I heard you were having a party without a permit.”

Surprised, Dan asked, “Do I need a permit?”

“Not when you invite the Police Department to join the party,” Captain Dawson said with a wink.

Dan laughed upon realizing that the Captain was joking. He shook his head and said, “Remind me to drop your stretcher when we’re practicing that part.”

Captain Dawson laughed and said, “I’ve got a feeling the detectives will be ordering a lot of your pizzas when they are on stakeout. I’ve eaten two of those personal pizzas and I’m wishing I had room for one more.”

“I’m glad you like it,” Dan said.

Getting a little more serious, Captain Dawson asked, “Are you going to be able to finish the CERT training?”

“I’m going to try. I’ll miss next week while we’re working out the details, but hopefully I’ll be able to make the next one,” Dan answered. There were only three more training sessions.

“Too bad you don’t have a private meeting room. We could move the training over here,” Captain Dawson said. He really hoped that Dan would finish the program. He had talked to Dan about his version of the events during the tornado. Dan’s version spoke of the frustration that he felt at not being able to help. It was an honesty that he admired.

“I really will try to make it,” Dan said.

“I’ve got to head back to the station. You have a good time,” Captain Dawson said.

“Thanks,” Dan said.

It seemed that as soon as Captain Dawson had left, Mr. Foreman came over and said, “Hello, Dan. It looks like everything is going well.”

“Yes, there are a lot of people here and they look like they are having fun,” Dan said. There were now well over fifty people milling around the restaurant. It looked full and people were still arriving.

“When you told me that day that you were going to open a pizzeria I had my doubts. Lots of men on the work crews talk about big dreams. After having watched you work for a while, I became convinced that you’d go all the way. I’m glad to see that I was right,” Mr. Foreman said.