Code Name Chocolate

I felt proud as I added another tip to the jar. It was nearly full already and it was only lunch.

"You better not ever leave us Hannah," Shelby said to me, nearly tipping over under her tray of food as she passed by. "I swear your tips are what keep this diner going."

I smiled, pleased at the compliment, and went to check on my tables.

"Did you save any room for dessert today, sir? Your regular piece of pie perhaps?" I asked the last customer of my round through the diner.

"Actually Hannah, today I would like a piece of chocolate cake please," he said to me with an expression on his face that I will never forget.

I almost fainted.

The chatter of the diner's patrons, the sizzling of the grill, everything went deadly quiet in my head. I was sure all the blood had run from my face. My hands no longer seemed to work, but somehow, I got him his slice of cake, and his check.

He held my gaze intently as he nodded a supposed thanks. I nodded back jerkily and offered a smile. Then I nodded with more resolution, more to myself than to him, and stepped behind the counter.

"Shelby, I'm sorry, I suddenly don’t feel so well. Would you mind covering for me if I left a little early? I only have half an hour left in my shift."

"Sure hun, you go on home and feel better," she said as she frowned at me. I must have looked very pale indeed.

I watched her go out among the customers, wishing I could give her a hug. Then I rushed into the back room. As the door shut behind me, I let myself stand still for just a moment, to breathe and to think of how I had gotten to this point.

___________________________________________________

I had met Abraham right here in the diner, when he had sat down at the very table he had sat at today. I had always thought that love at first sight was nonsense. When he first looked up at me to place his order, it may not have been love, but I knew my life would never be the same again. There had been many times I cursed my job at the diner, had cursed the customers and their overwhelming demands. But that day, I thanked my lucky stars for that job, and for that diner, because it had brought me him.

Before he finished his first meal, he asked me to the drive-in that very night. I could not even tell you the movie that had played. I was that far gone.

Between movies, walks after my shift, and meals anywhere else but the diner, my parents could not help but notice that I was getting home later and later. They could not help but notice that their daughter, who never liked to go anywhere, suddenly never wanted to be home. They had me invite him for dinner.

He was polite, and they were delighted. A teacher! And he volunteers in his spare time! He often bought an extra meal at the diner to give to someone homeless. His students adored him. My mother was over the moon. Both my parents were. Until my father asked where he went to church.

"I go to temple, sir," Abraham had said. I had known, of course, and had not thought twice about it. My Baptist parents would have none of it. After we finished dinner, Abraham was shown to the door, and I was forbidden from seeing him again. In that moment, I felt pain I never thought I would be made to endure. But they could not forbid him from coming to the diner, and so my broken heart kept beating.

Throughout those torturous months, we communicated mostly through notes on the backs of checks, or notes he left tucked into newspapers he left behind after his meals. Even Shelby did not know. No one could.

The chocolate cake had become a code. "Code Name Chocolate" we had joked. It meant he needed to see me. We used it very sparingly as I could only imagine what would happen if my parents found out. The first time we set up a meeting with the chocolate cake, he took me back to the drive in where we went that first night and he asked me to marry him. It was then that I chose my future rather than to remain loyal to my past. Another time, we had gone to get our marriage license. This time would be the last. It meant everything was ready. It meant I would not be coming back. I would leave the diner and go to the courthouse. We would then drive to a new town, a new home, and I would spend the night with my husband. No one would find us until it was too late to do anything about it.

____________________________________________________

I snapped out of the memories and rushed to my locker. I had a bag there, packed and ready for weeks. Not too much, since I could not take much and let my parents get suspicious. I paused only to pull out an envelope and slide it through the slots in Shelby’s locker door. I had written a note, apologizing and explaining. Her envelope also contained a letter for my parents. In my note to her I also asked that she drop the letter off for them after a while. After we were long gone. As I was leaving, I foolishly felt a twinge of guilt over the tip jar, and how just moments ago Shelby was telling me that I better not ever leave. Maybe she had known all along.

I stepped out the back, and Abraham was waiting, the engine running. I slipped into the car, and we were gone.

____________________________________________________

“I can’t believe he’s 5 years old already!” I exclaimed as I watched Robbie play in the yard through the kitchen window.

“It does seem just like yesterday that we spent our first night in this house with Robbie only a hope of ours,” Abraham murmured in my ear as I leaned back against his chest.

I took a breath and turned toward him.

“I have something to show you,” I said shakily, and then turned to open one of the kitchen drawers, removing an envelope. “I didn’t say anything before because I wasn’t sure what to make of it. I think I was too shocked, but anyway…”

He couldn’t hide the surprise on his face as he took in the card I had handed him. He looked up to me for confirmation, not able to believe what he saw.

“My parents sent him a birthday card this year. It seems they may be coming around after all!” Before I knew what was happening, I was sobbing into his chest, the birthday card crushed between us. My parents had never sent Robbie anything.

“Not everything’s fixed, I know, but maybe everything will be well,” I wailed into his shirt.

Eventually, the tears stopped, and I was breathing calmly again.

“I’ll show him the card soon, and try to explain, but first thing’s first! It’s time for birthday dessert!” I said, further composing myself before calling Robbie.

“And what’s on the menu?” Abraham asked gruffly. I saw then he had been crying too.

“The only thing he ever asks for,” I responded, smiling up at my husband. “Chocolate cake, of course.”