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Raining Cats and Dogs

Go, do it!

By Sharyl WeinshilboumPublished 4 years ago 8 min read
1

I wandered in about half past midnight. It started to rain harder and the neon was hard to resist. I heard the bell ring as I opened the door and the cook yelled from the kitchen “Sit where you want, but hang up your coat!” I guess if I was working in an all night diner on Market on a Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning I might bark at me too. I hung my black trench coat on the metal rack by the door, right under the moose head. Not sure why they had a moose head in the middle of San Francisco, but there it was.

I pulled out a menu in a plastic cover from the holder on the table. There was a picture of a rooster and the sun rising over a red barn. Breakfast served all Day was printed on a bubble that came out of the rooster’s mouth.

“Coffee, Hon?” asked the waitress in a pink, 50’s style dress with a black collar. She had the coffee pot in her right hand and her left hand rested impatiently on her hip.

“ Just ice water, thanks” I smiled. She sighed as she walked back behind the counter to put the coffee away. I looked out the window at the rain and my own reflection.. I heard the clink of ice in the glass and the water being dispensed out of the soda machine. She returned with my water and silverware. “Napkins are on the table, Hon. Know whatcha want, or you need a minute?” she raised her eyebrows and looked down over the top of her glasses in an exasperated way.

“Would you recommend the gyro or the patty melt?” I asked.

“Let me ask Joe” then she yelled “ Hey, Joe! What’s better, the gyro or the patty melt?”

“What the hell is a gyro?” he yelled back.

“ I guess that’s your answer” she sighed again. “That comes with french fries, potato salad, cottage cheese or a bag of chips.” She looked over her glasses again.

“The fries,please.” I answered. No reason to watch my figure now, I thought.

I sat in the red booth, facing the door, out of habit and seeing too many episodes of The Sopranos. The waitress was cashing out two guys at the register. The tall one wore a yellow golf jacket like my dad used to wear. They pushed the door to leave. The bell rang and I turned my head toward the door.

There she was; her hair was slicked down on her head, cut short in back like a boy. At first that’s what I thought when I saw her. I wondered why a boy would be out in the rain this time of night? With her back still to me, she reached behind her head, pulled off her soaking wet t-shirt, shook her head side-to-side like a wet dog, reached into her backpack, pulled out a hooded sweatshirt and slipped it on before the waitress lifted her eyes. She hung her backpack next to my coat and her wet t-shirt on the bottom hanger. It dripped on the mat.

“Cats and Dogs, that’s what it is out there tonight!” she said as she walked past the register and toward my table. I felt like I had been caught staring as she sustained eye contact. I felt my cheeks blush and I nodded a greeting.

“I’ve always been a dog person” she said to me,”and you?”

It took me a few seconds to speak.”And me, what?” I finally said.

“Are you a dog or a cat person?” she asked as she rubbed her wet hair with the hood of her sweatshirt. “I find most people are either one or the other, even if they don’t have any pets.”

“Oh, let’s see. Cat I guess.” I wasn’t sure why I was answering. “I had a cat named Max, but he died.” I hadn’t thought about Max since we moved to 17th Street.

“I’m sorry,” she said “to bring up a sad topic on a rainy night.”

“That’s ok.” I said, waiting for her to go sit in another booth. She just stood there.

“Please.” I said as I motioned for her to sit.

“Thanks. I hate to see people eat alone.” she said as she slid into the booth across from me.

“She bothering you, Hon?” the waitress asked as she sat my plate down. She reached over to pick up a bottle of ketchup from the next table and put it in front of me. “Just let me know if she does.” She gave the girl a stare like my mom used to when my cousins and I were giggling at the kids’ table at Thanksgiving.

“Don’t mind her, she’s off at two and the last hour she tends to get cranky” the girl said.

“Watch it, Kat.” the waitress warned as she wiped down the counter.

“So, you know my name.” the girl named Kat said. “Your turn.”

“Oh, oh me? I’m Claire” I fumbled, trying to open the ketchup bottle.

“You gonna eat all those fries, Claire?” my new friend asked as she reached over, took the bottle from my hand, hit the cap with the handle of my butter knife and twisted it off.

“Could I get another plate, and some silverware, please” I asked the waitress. I nodded my head toward the other side of the booth. “Would you like to order something?” I asked.

“You have any cherry pie left, Alice?” Kat asked the waitress as she brought the plate and silverware. He ordered cherry pie on our first date, at Perkins, I thought to myself.

“Yes, we do and how many times do I have to tell you my name’s not Alice, it’s Lois” the waitress said. Her exasperated expression had returned.

“Oh, that’s right. Like Lois Lane and Superman” Kat said. “And a nice Vanilla Shake, please, Lois.” she grinned..

“I guess this is going on your tab?” Lois the waitress asked and looked at me.

“Sure, that’s fine. Uh, thank you.” I said. “You sure that’s all you want?” I asked Kat.

“Yeah, I’m not afraid of a little late-night sugar rush, are you?” she said with a giggle.

The waitress walked away, shaking her head.

“I had a dog named Bella, a black lab.” Kat said, picking up fries and putting them on the extra plate. “My best friend. I guess it’s true what they say” with a mouthful of fries “Man’s best friend.”

Kat kept talking. I heard her voice but it sounded more like the chatter of a house finch until she said “You know, unconditional love.” Why did that phrase snap me out of it?

The waitress brought the pie. A minute later she returned with a frosty, stainless steel mixing cup,a long spoon and a fountain glass on a saucer with a wafer cookie and a maraschino cherry. I smiled as I watched Kat’s giddy response - she clapped her hands and bounced in her seat.

“So,” she said, pouring the shake into the glass, “why did you choose to come out tonight in the pouring rain for a patty melt, Claire? Lover’s quarrel?”

How can you quarrel with someone you don’t even talk to? I thought. He fell asleep at ten and didn’t even hear me leave.

“It’s none of my business, of course,” she said as she took a huge bite of her pie “Just curious, you know?”

“No, nothing like that” I said as I swirled the ketchup with a french fry.

“Like I said, none of my business,” Kat took a big gulp of shake. “ I meet a lot of people at a crossroads, you know?”

“Maybe she was just hungry” Lois the waitress said as she laid the check on the table.

“I’m going off shift soon, did you need anything else?”

“How about a hot order of fries to go?”asked Kat. She had finished the pie. Lois gave me a look. I nodded my approval to add an order of fries. They were good fries.

“I was over at the Castro with my friends, but they have to get up early for work. I wanted to walk in the rain awhile and the city looks so clean and pretty when it’s all wet.” Kat said as she drank down the last of the shake. “Wanna see a trick?” she asked. I shrugged my shoulders.

“Oh, so here goes.”

She put the cherry, stem and all, in her mouth. She chewed for a few seconds and swallowed, then she smiled with the stem sticking out from between her teeth. She closed her lips and I could see her tongue moving, poking out her cheek on one side and then the other.

“Ta-da!” she announced as she picked the cherry stem from between her teeth. She had tied with her tongue. “Four years at Berkley and this is my skill.”

“Your parents must be so proud.” I said, wondering if I used the right amount of sarcasm.

My parents want to be grandparents I thought to myself, with too much sarcasm.

“Your to-go is ready” Lois said from the register, holding up a paper bag.

“At least I think the rain has stopped” I said as I reached in my purse and pulled out two twenties.

“That was great, thanks!” Kat said as she put a few sugar packets in her jean’s pocket.

I stood at the register to pay. “Keep the change” I told Lois and Joe the cook nodded goodbye from the counter. He was eating eggs and rye toast.

“Thank you, come again.” said Lois from behind the counter. She poured out the coffee in the big stainless steel sink.

I turned around to get my coat and I heard the bell ring. The door was half open. I rushed to get my arm in my sleeve and followed Kat out the door. She was a few storefronts up Market. It was late, I didn’t want to yell goodbye.

Kat turned around. She started skipping toward me. I just stood outside the door, watching her move. The lights at Dubose reflected in the wet pavement.

“Go do it!” she said as she skipped past me. I wasn’t sure I heard her right. I must have made a face because she said it again. “Go, do it!”

“ Do what?” I asked.

“Whatever you were thinking about while I was talking to you in there.” Kat said and then she patted her belly. “Look up, the stars are out now.”

breakups
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