Even God Gets a Day Off
by Mickie Kennedy
Something the man tells Claire, the waitress, when he comes in having missed the previous day. No need to ask, she readies a cup of coffee and a handful of creamers, lets the cook know to prepare Joe's order. She asks if it looks like rain today.
How the hell should I know? Do I look like a weatherman? They laugh.
Joe is the weatherman for the local CBS affiliate 20 miles up the road and finishes his early morning shift at 11am. He likes it here because they'll fix him pancakes and eggs when everyone else is serving lunch. There's usually no one there at 11:30, the lunch crowd beginning at noon. Mostly, he remembers this is where he took his son Charlie, how he'd watch him sometimes eat two breakfasts as if he'd never eaten before. The waitress then was the owner's wife, who passed a few years back. Cancer. Same as Charlie.
How's Bill? Joe asks. Bill, the owner, is Claire's dad. She forces a smile and says he's fine. She doesn't share that he no longer recognizes her, gets scared when she enters his room at the home. She doesn't share that they want to move him to the Alzheimer's floor, which she's resisting because it's nearly double the cost. They say he needs extra attention, more nurses per patient. There's not enough money in the bank or equity in the house to keep him there long. She doesn't share that she's ready to pack up her old Pontiac and just drive away to someplace new without the old pains and obligations.
Even this job, she does it because she feels she has no choice. The decisions that weigh her down have no easy answers. She sets a plate in front of Joe and says Enjoy, which he does.
Mickie Kennedy is a gay American writer who resides in Baltimore County, Maryland with his family and two feuding cats. He enjoys British science fiction and the idea of long hikes in nature. A prior Washington Review poetry award winner, his work has appeared in The Bangalore Review, Hole in the Head Review, Midway Journal, Plainsongs, Portland Review, Rattle, and Wisconsin Review. He earned an MFA from George Mason University.