Once Upon a Friday

"The sight of you in the kitchen in the morning is the only thing better than the way this place smells! Mmmm!" Jayne exclaimed, burying her face in the crook of Lindsay's neck, and wrapping her waist in a big hug from behind. "Having a single set of stairs be our commute, is another thing I do love!"

Lindsay set a bag of dark roast coffee beans down on the counter, and rotated to kiss Jayne good morning. "It is a good commute!" she giggled. "Is the little dude up and at 'em?"

"He's struggling to choose which miss-matched pair of socks to wear, but he's up, washed, brushed and dressed, and his backpack is ready. He'll be down in a minute. I'll make his lunch now, everything else under control?"

Lindsay nodded, and pulled away from Jayne, scooping up the sack of beans and dumping them into the top of the grinder. "Cinnamon buns are in the oven--I did a couple dozen extra since it's Friday, and I did a bunch of apple muffins. Croissants are cooling."

"Awesome! That's what I'm smelling--that apple goodness!" Jayne was pulling out baby carrots, sandwich bread, and mayo from one of the fridges under the bar. Through the steamy diner windows, life outside was waking up. A few cars hurried downtown, early morning joggers loped by, and bike traffic picked up on the bike route just beyond a row of potted mini shrubs along the sidewalk. The day's spring sunshine reached shafts of gold light into the 16-seat dining room, and bounced off the shakers on the tables.

"I've got the morning baking under control, and we’re ready for the day here, but I do think it is very weird that we haven't been able to reach Mrs. Clery for more than 3 weeks now. Have you done this week's deposit into her account?"

"Yep. I did it into the night deposit box at First and Jenning St. on my way to pick up Christopher from swimming lessons yesterday. I wish we had her son’s phone number or some contact for him" Jayne mused as she sliced cucumbers and cheese. "He's the only one she's ever mentioned that sounded like he had any involvement in her life."

"It's true. For five years I worked with her here before she decided to retire uptown and have us take over and sublet upstairs, and now we've been doing this for her for two years, and I've never heard of any one else calling her, or heard of anyone visiting." Lindsay leaned against the counter polishing glasses, holding one after the other up to the morning light to check for spots, before setting it on it's shelf. "Franky, she's a little snippy about it, when asked, I thought. Have you noticed that? In any case, I hate that she's not answering our FaceTimes, and I think we need to go visit her!"

Jayne tucked the last of a lunch fit for a five-year-old into a stainless Bento box, and set it on the edge of the counter beside a water bottle covered in dinosaur stickers. "I agree. It's unnerving. If we mask up, and take an Uber, we should be able to at least knock on her door and see what's going on. We can go up tomorrow. Saturday's are usually pretty chill; closing up shop will be easy-peasy. The kid will love the adventure uptown!”

“Tell me you’re living in a pandemic, without telling me you’re living in a pandemic!” Lindsay chortled. “But seriously, it’s true though! It will be an adventure! Especially since we’ve literally worked all the days for so long in a row now. I sure wish we could afford to sue that damn doctor that failed to keep his momma alive. Gawd! I miss my sister so much!”

Christopher banged down the stairs, slid into the little kitchen, almost bumping into Jayne. “Hello, Whirlwind! Want some oatmeal?” she asked in a bright voice as he ran passed her to the front entrance, but her eyes, filled with empathy, met Linday’s.

“Can I turn on the OPEN sign? It’s time right! It must be, because I see old Mister David coming!”

Jayne quickly kissed Lindsay on the cheek, and called “Yep!” to Christopher. “Thanks for your help, kiddo! He sure is a regular guy, that Mister David, isn’t he?”

To Lindsay she said quietly, “Hey, want to walk him to outdoor school? It’s in the big park today. Take your time and get a little change of scenery. I’ve got this place handled.”

Lindsay nodded. “Thanks, Babe. Someday we’ll buy this biz. Covid sure isn’t making saving easy, but someday it will be ours, and we’ll hire a good lawyer, and we’ll take over the marketing of this place, and turn it around!”

“Yeah we will.”

The bell above the door tinkled and a tallish, white-haired gentleman wearing a threadbare trench coat, strode to the table furthest from the door, and as he did most days. He cradled a clutch of black notebooks in the crook of his arm, and nodded to Jayne, “I’ll have the usual.”

She was already on her way to his table, his order in hand:a French press steaming with coffee, a little bowl of sugar, and a slice of sourdough toast. He nodded thanks, as he folded his coat over the chair to his left, and sat with his back to the other tables, facing the wall. He arranged his breakfast before him, selected a notebook, and hunched over, busying himself for much of the morning, sipping, sketching, and making notes, never asking for any more service, and always closing the leather cover before anyone could peep at his work. Before the lunch rush started, as usual, he gathered his books, stacked his dishes neatly, and stood up. Jayne grabbed his check, processed his CC payment, which he signed “DAVID” in capital letters, and then headed back towards downtown the way he came every morning.

Jayne and Lindsay were both running from table to table by the time he stood up to leave. Lindsay smiled at him. “Busy Friday! Our busiest in a very long time I think! Did you get a lot done?” He nodded, smiled, scrawled “DAVID” and left.

Lindsay was unfazed; there were three tables ready to check out, and a delivery driver waiting for an order by the counter. It was almost closing time and soon Christopher would be home from his after school program.

“Jayne, can you take that last bill out? I’ll clear these two tables. We’re almost done for the week!”

“Yes, sure. Let’s lock up before anyone else…” Jayne’s voice trailed off, and she set the stack of plates she was carrying down on the counter with a thud. “Linds, we didn’t lock up soon enough. Who are those guys?”

Lindsay handed a customer a receipt, and turned to see who had turned Jayne’s face pale.Three men in suits pushed passed the last customer as they tried to exit, as he loudly announced “This place is closed! Why are you still operating?”

Jayne and Lindsay covered the ground between them and the men quickly, and Jayne raised her hand. “Excuse me? It is not!”

“Registered mail was signed for twelve days ago, see…” he extended a leather-gloved hand, holding an iPad with an image of a courier receipt. Scrawled in the “signed for” space where the letters “CHristopHErXOXo”.

“Oh my gawd, that’s our five year old’s signature, when did this happen? And what is going on with Mrs. Clery?” Lindsay sputtered, her face flushed.

The man stepped back slightly at her outburst.

“Mrs. Clery? Oh. So you didn’t read the letter we sent?”

“Didn’t read it? Our five year old must have been trying to help. Who knows where it is! What did it say? C’mon!!” Jayne shouted.

“Mrs. Clery is dead. She died of covid complications, and her son doesn’t want anything to do with this business. Doesn’t make any money. It’s up for sale for 20K. And the lease is up in a week. You got twenty thousand? Otherwise you gotta be out by the first!”

“What? Dead?!?” Lindsay’s hand flew to her mouth, and Jayne reached for her, their eyes darting from one of the men’s faces to another, searching for answers.

The three men glanced around at the place. “Can’t blame him. Who would even eat here? Low-end diner!” and they turned and left as quick as they’d come.

“Oh my fucking gawd!!” Jayne cried as she quickly locked the door behind them and leaned against it.

“Christopher will be home any minute. What are we going to do? We can’t be freaking out! Oh great. He’s already here!” Lindsay looked from the door to Jayne, and then smiled. “We can talk about this after we get him to bed. For now, we need a plan for the evening and we need to play it cool, and not scare him.”

Jayne looked back. There he was, button nose pressed against the door, his after-school nanny smiling broadly beside him. She unlocked the door, and squatted down to his height, engulfing him in a bear hug. “My dude! It’s Friday! How was your day?!”

“It was fun! Can we go get pizza?”

“Wow, wow!” Jayne laughed, and Lindsay joined them, kissing him atop his head. “Thanks Melanie! Say bye to Mel!” They waved goodbye to the nanny, and turned to look at each other.

“So, pizza? What do you think Jayne? I didn’t tell you, but Mr. David left one of his notebooks. He must have set it down on the seat beside him, and missed it when he took his coat to leave. He must live nearby since he always comes on foot. Let’s check the address. Maybe we can go for a stroll, get pizza, AND return his book?”

“Sounds good. Whatcha think, Christopher? Let’s see if there’s an address in that book.”

The little boy had already retrieved the book from under the cash register, and was sliding it’s elastic fastener off from around it. It snapped a little as it opened.

“Hey, no peeking in the pages! That’s someone’s personal journal!” Lindsay remonstrated. “Just check the first page!”

The kindergartner slowly sounded out the words in the front cover, Lindsay and Jayne bumping heads, trying to see what he was reading.

“David. 131 Broadway Avenue. Reward. Twenty Thousand”.

Jayne snatched the book from his little hands.

“What? No! That’s funny. That’s a good way to get someone to return your book. Say you’ll give a reward. But you must be reading it wrong!” She examined it, and then handed it to Lindsay. “That’s what it says. What an eccentric old guy. Well, we know he certainly doesn’t have twenty thousand dollars, but we might as well return his book anyway. Let’s go get pizza!”

Christopher jumped up onto a diner chair and leaped off, shouting “Yehaw!”

Lindsay held the door open for him to race out, and Jayne tucked the book into her backpack and headed out the open door, waiting for Lindsay to join her and grab her hand.

“Okay, 151 Broadway. That should be just a couple blocks ahead and two to the right. Stay close!” Jayne admonished the bopping kid ahead of them.

“God, he’s fast!”

In a few minutes they were looking at addresses.

“Um, Lindsay? I think that that’s... “ her voice trailed off, and she looked up at a four-story wall of glass, in front of a gallery showroom full of bright shoes and boots.

“Ok, holy. OMG. 151 Broadway is the Auvlerg Shoe Company!”

Christopher pressed his face against the window, and a clerk inside rushed over to shake her head at him.

“Chris, come, come!” Lindsay reached for him, and looked at Jayne. “I’m so confused. Who’s David, I wonder? Well, I’ll wait out here. You take the book in.”

Lindsay crouched beside her little nephew, and asked him to wait with her while they watched. Jayne took a deep breath, and pulled the black, leather notebook out of her knapsack, and pushed the swinging, glass column-of-a-door open.

“May we assist you?” The expression of dubious annoyance quickly changed to excitement.

“The lost book! Monsieur Auvlerg’s book! Where did you find it!! Petra! Stephan! Come at once!”

Jayne stepped back ward just a little, and extended the book, half a dozen staff members dressed in black, surrounded her.

“He… he.. Just left it in my…” Jayne stuttered. “He left it in my, in our…” she half turned to the window, Lindsay and Christohper peered in, anxiety etched on their faces. “In our diner, where he comes every day!”

“Well, well. So you came for the reward then? Come to the office. Do you have ID?” A gentleman stepped forward and extended his hand.

Jayne didn’t take it for a minute, but looked up at him. She slowly reached out her hand to his, and softly she whispered, “A reward?”

“Of course!” several voices chorused. “Monsieur Auvlerg is very absent-minded. If we didn’t put such enormous rewards on his books, who knows whose hands his designs could fall into!” one of the women explained. “Now come, come, let’s write you a check and get you on your way.”

Jayne’s slowly let go of the man’s hand she’d been shaking, and looked back at the faces of her chosen family outside the glass wall of the fancy shoe shop.”

She turned back to the well-dressed gentleman.

“Yes, I have some ID. And I have some pizza to buy, a lawyer to hire, and a business to save.”

“Excuse, I’m sorry, what was that?” the man cocked his head, confused.

“Oh nothing, I’m sorry. Yes! Let’s get me on my way. Thank you! Please tell Mr. David, I mean, Mr. Auvlerg thank you so very much! You have no idea what this means to us!”

“Oh he won’t even know!” the first woman laughed. “He doesn’t even know this is our system, but he loves to wander to cafes, and design, and he doesn’t always keep track of his very important books, so this is how we insure them. If you see him again, please don’t tell him. He finds it very embarrassing, you’ve returned it now so he doesn’t even need to be alerted. The designs in this book will bring in many times that amount in sales. Here you go!” She handed Jayne’s driver’s license back to her. “We’ll be back in a few minutes with your check.”

The well-dressed staff slowly dispersed, leaving Jayne standing in the mammoth gallery, slowly shaking her head. The woman returned with a clipboard. “Sign here, here, and here. And sign this image of this check. There you go. Thank you!”

Jayne stared down at the check. “Thank you, thank you!”

She spun on her heel, and ran back out the door, holding the check up for Lindsay to see.

“What? No way!” The collapsed on the sidewalk in tears and shrieks of laughter.

“Um, can we get pizza?” Christopher peered down at them, confused.

“Yes!” Jayne laughed grabbing him and pulling him onto their pile on the concrete. “Yes, my dude. Pizza, and so much more!”