Page 13 of Missing Moon
Paxton flips through the menu and takes a look. “Is it any good?”
“Dunno. Never tried it.” Avril looks around to make sure no one is watching her, then leans close to whisper, “It’s frozen out of a box. We just microwave it.”
Oof. That sounds like Mack alright. The exotic stuff he didn’t know how to cook, he’d buy frozen from the grocery store. At least he only marked it up by like a dollar or two. After all, he wanted to offer variety, not scam people.
Anthony opts for a burger, as does Tammy.
Good choice. The two things this diner cooks fresh—or at least used to when I worked here—were the burgers and any form of sandwich, including the melts. I remember the Reuben being popular, though I’d never ate one myself.
Paxton gives me the ‘what do I do’ look.
The ‘vegetarian lasagna’ is twelve bucks, I see. It’s the only thing on the menu other than the salads that count as vegetarian. Pax isn’t militant about that sort of thing. She just feels bad for the animals, as most farmed livestock aren’t treated particularly well. However, if there is absolutely no other option, she’ll tolerate eating chicken or fish.
“If you want it, get it.” I shrug. “If it’s bad… get something else.”
“Okay. I’ll try it.” Paxton smiles at Avril.
I also get a burger… and a blasted onion. Mack couldn’t call it a ‘blooming onion’ because he didn’t want to get sued, but it’s basically the same thing.
At this point, after Avril walks away with our order, the kids start asking me about the place, what it was like when I was a kid and so on. Story time. I basically tell them about my experiences here at their age, trying not to sound like an old woman who walked to school barefoot in the snow both ways.
When Avril comes back with refills for our iced tea, I catch her eye.
“Is Mack here?” I ask.
“Who?” Avril frowns. “I don’t know anyone named Mack.”
Her confused expression makes her look even younger. Might even be fifteen for all I know. If I had to guess, she’d been working here a few months. She’s comfortable enough not to seem new and doesn’t have another person shadowing her to make sure she doesn’t mess anything up.
“Mack’s the owner.” I smile. “When I was your age, I worked here. He did most of the cooking.”
“Oh, wow.” Avril whistles. “That must’ve been a while ago.”
Tammy laughs.
“Oops.” Avril grimaces. “I didn’t mean to call you old. Sorry.”
I wave dismissively. “It’s fine. I didn’t take it that way.”
The older waitress sidles up beside Avril, looking at me. She’s wearing a little name badge with the word ‘Tanya’ on it. “Mack, umm, disappeared.”
“Him, too?” blurts Avril.
“Happened before you started.” The woman scratches a fingernail over her left eyebrow. “He just up and vanished, like the rest of them. Gotta be about six months ago now. They never found him. Poor Gwen.”
“Gwen?” I blink up at her. “You mean Gwendolyn Pickett?”
Avril makes an ‘I’ll leave you guys to your conversation’ face, and scoots off.
“Yeah.” Tanya looks me over. “You know her?”
“Sorta.” I lean back in my seat. “She came in here all the time when I waited tables in high school. We talked a lot. She was not in a great place.” As I think about her, my memory goes right to that whole thing where she went into the bathroom here and shot herself dead. Of course, that only happened in the alternate dimension. Whether or not therealGwendolyn Pickett was on the verge of suicide or had a gun with her the night we had talked, I’ll never know. I’d like to think she didn’t… we’d been talking for months at that point. I was her confidant, her source of hope. She didn’t have that in the alternate world. The version of me there was kind of a selfish bitch.
“Yeah, Gwen and Mack ended up getting married.” Tanya smiles wistfully. “They were good together. His death hit her hard.”
“He’s dead?” I gawk. “You didn’t say that… just that he went missing.”
“Oops, I mean…” Tanya lets out a long sigh. “They never found him, but everyone around town thinks he’s dead. He wouldn’t stay away from Gwen—or his diner—this long otherwise.”