Chapter 41

Taking care of the pizzeria was a lot of work. It was a pretty grueling pace for Dan. All in all, he didn’t have much of a break during the day. His time during the few quiet moments was spent with the accounts, ordering supplies, and taking care of the thousands of other little details that went with owning a business. He was working thirteen hour days that began at 9:30 in the morning, and ended at 10:30 at night.

It wasn’t just the time spent working that wore him down. There were a lot of things to worry about when running a business. He looked at the employees and thought about how they depended on his ability to run the business for their livelihood. A few bad decisions on his part, and they would have to look for new jobs. A small decrease in the number of customers, could drive the pizzeria into a long, and painful death.

He wondered how the end of the school year would affect his business. That was still a month away, but that didn’t prevent him from worrying about it. The business was progressing better than he had expected. He was pulling in about thirty dollars a day more than he had planned. That didn’t sound like much, but it added almost a thousand dollars a month to his sales.

He looked at the sales curves and wished that he had a year long history on which to base his decisions. There was the rest of spring, summer, fall, and winter. He knew that the seasons would affect sales, but he didn’t know how they would affect them. it. He glanced at his calendar and realized that it was time for him to file his taxes. He frowned at the thought of how much time and money that would cost him.

It was time to make the work schedule for the next week. Everyone had fixed schedules except for the delivery folks. The main reason for that was Diana. She tended to work when she wanted to, and expected him to arrange everyone else’s schedule for her convenience. She came and went as she pleased. Even when she was at the pizzeria, she did half of the work of everyone else. He was half tempted to get another driver and give everyone a fixed schedule.

He sighed and said, “If she wasn’t my sister, I’d fire her.”

Diana sat across the cafeteria table from Steve thinking that he was a nice guy, but he didn’t really stimulate her mind. Still, he took her nice places and treated her well so she didn’t have any grounds to complain.

She asked, “Where are we going Friday night?”

“I can’t go out Friday night,” Steve answered putting down his sandwich.

He wasn’t looking forward to this discussion. It seemed to him that Diana didn’t always react too well when her plans were interrupted.

Frowning, Diana asked, “Why not?”

“I’ve got something that I have to do with my family,” Steve answered.

Diana wasn’t too pleased with having nothing to do on a Friday night. She studied Steve for a minute before she asked, “Can I go, too?”

“No. It’s a family thing,” Steve answered.

They were going to visit his grand-aunt in the nursing home. Her health had taken a slow but steady downward spiral. His father was particularly upset about it. His uncle had come down to see the older woman before she passed away. No one expected her to live out the month.

“I’ll be happy to go,” Diana said.

Shaking his head, Steve said, “Not this time.”

“Okay, be that way,” Diana said crossing her arms and glaring at Steve.

Steve frowned and said, “Look, Diana, this is a rather private family matter. I was hoping that you would understand that.”

“No, that’s all right. I understand,” Diana said thinking that he could have included her if he had wanted. She felt that he was just making excuses to get out of seeing her Friday evening. She decided that if he didn’t want to see her, then that would be fine with her.

Knowing that she didn’t understand, Steve said, “Some things are meant to be kept within the family. The rest of my family won’t understand if I bring a stranger along.”

“So now I’m a stranger,” Diana said looking at Steve with a frown.

“Yes, to the rest of my family you are a stranger,” Steve replied.

Diana rose from her chair and said, “Okay. I’ll see you around.”

“Diana! Wait!”

Steve watched Diana walk off thinking that she had become a whole lot more selfish the past few months. He didn’t exactly like the person she had become.

The grueling pace had begun to wear Dan down. Working thirteen hour days and seven days a week was very draining. He might have a lot of pride in his pizzeria, but it was a lot of work. He couldn’t say that he hadn’t been warned. He stepped into the apartment, happy to be returning home from a long day at work.

He had just closed the door when he was tackled. His back slammed against into the door, and he saw stars. He didn’t even have time to react when a woman was kissing him all over his face. Off balance, he slid down to the floor and the woman kissing his face followed him on down. He was having trouble making out who it was until he realized that the mass of brown hair in his eyes belonged to Ann.

He hadn’t even seen Ann approaching him. Once the stars had cleared and she had calmed down, he asked, “Not that I’m complaining, but what was that about?”

“I got the article today,” Ann said. She proceeded to kiss him some more. It didn’t matter to her that she was kissing his chin.

Confused, he asked, “What article?”

“The one written by Donald Watson,” Ann answered. She attacked his face with more kisses.

“What article?” Dan asked when she had pulled back to take a breath.

“The one in the New York paper that describes my mural,” Ann answered.

“Oh, so he finally got around to writing it,” Dan said. The back of his head hurt where he had hit it against the door.

“You didn’t even tell me that he saw it,” Ann said. She hadn’t believed her eyes when she had opened the envelope and saw the article contained within it. The idea that her work had been given a favorable review in a New York paper was overwhelming. She was going to have to get another copy of the article since the one that she had was now covered in tears.

Dan looked over at Sally. She was laughing at the pair of them on the floor. Dan looked like a deer caught in the headlights of on oncoming semi-trailer truck. Ann was an emotional mess.

Taking pity on Dan, she said, “Let him get up before you kill him.”

“Oh, sorry,” Ann said scrambling up from the floor. She looked down at Dan with tears in her eyes and said, “That is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

“Hey, I just wanted to help,” Dan said. The next thing he knew was that Ann was atop him and kissing him some more. This time there were tears along with the kisses. Not knowing what else to do, he put his arms around Ann and held her tight.

It was the right thing to do.

Granny Parker had become a fixture at Parker’s Perfect Pizza. She was there every afternoon when the teenagers were hanging around after school. A lot of the kids had parents that both worked and they had nowhere better to go. An amazing dynamic had emerged. Rather than being treated like a crazy old bat, a lot of the kids had adopted her as their own grandmother. They talked to her about their problems and she listened with an understanding ear. She was a non-threatening adult presence for a lot of kids that didn’t have that in their lives.

When things were good, Granny Parker teased the kids and they ate it up. More than one young couple had found they were a couple because of her meddling. She was quick to let someone know when they had crossed the line of acceptable behavior, but she was even quicker with a hug.

The kids also liked Dan. He knew all of the regulars by name. They felt that he wasn’t so old that he had forgotten what it was like to be a teenager living through the hell they called high school. When one of the kids was floundering, he would pull the kid aside and hand them a small stack of papers.

In a serious voice, he would say, “This contains all of the advice that I can give you. Read the three articles and then we’ll talk.”

More than one kid felt that Dan had given them the secret of success. In the short time that the pizzeria had been open, people’s lives were changing for the better. Even the principal of the local high school had noticed that a few of kids were behaving better. He chalked it up to them finally starting to grow up.

Dan looked up when the bell over the door rang ready to greet whoever came in by name. A sick feeling settled in his stomach when he saw who had just entered. The woman took one look at Dan and shouted, “Oh, God! It’s Dan Parker, the biggest fucking loser in town.”

Dan knew there was no way that she would leave if he asked her to go. He was going to have to get her removed from the premises. He was about to step over to the telephone to call the police when a second shout echoed through the pizzeria. “Kimberly Emily Parker! You shut your mouth right now!”

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Kim. She froze in place as if she had just been hit with a stun gun. The color drained from her face. She couldn’t even work up the nerve to look in the direction of where the voice had originated.

As Granny Parker stomped over to where Kim stood, one of the kids said, “Damn! Granny is pissed!”

Dan watched as the little old lady reached over to Kim and grabbed her by the ear. He thought she was going to twist the ear right off. Kim was bent over trying to lessen the pain. Granny just twisted harder until Kim shouted, “Ow!”

“That’s got to hurt,” one of the kids said cringing.

“Go, Granny, Go!” one of the other kids said. He was one of the kids that came to the pizzeria every day. He and his friends would play air hockey for an hour or two before heading home from school. It was great not having to pump quarters into a machine all afternoon. Occasionally Dan would even give them a free root beer.

Dan watched in amazement as Granny Parker dragged Kim out of the pizzeria. The angry look on her face was quite a sight to behold. He vowed at that moment that he would never make that little old lady mad at him. He watched through the window as Granny Parker proceeded to explain things to Kim. It looked like Kim wasn’t enjoying the lecture nearly as much as the rest of the kids in the pizzeria.

Kevin stepped over to Dan and asked, “Is she another relative of yours?”

“No,” Dan answered. He said, “Kim and I were classmates in school.”

“It looks like Granny Parker is related to her. That would make you relatives, wouldn’t it?” Kevin asked.

“Actually, I’m not related to Granny at all. I always figured that she had just adopted the Parker name when she was here,” Dan said rather amazed by the entire episode.

“Wow. I thought she was your grandmother,” Kevin said watching the scene taking place in front of the pizzeria.

“She acts like it,” Dan said with a shrug of his shoulders. He looked over at Kevin and, with a smile, added, “and so long as I’m a ‘good boy’ in her eyes, that’s all right with me.”

“You won’t be saying that if you’re ever a bad boy in her presence,” Kevin said with a laugh. He never wanted to make that woman mad at him. The look on her face reminded him of an incident when he had crossed a Sergeant back when he was in the military. He turned to the oven and said, “I’ll make up a batch of cinnamon twists for her.”