The Dark Circle by Robert J. Mrazek

Author:Robert J. Mrazek
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CROOKED LANE BOOKS

31

I had more than an hour to go before my appointment with the director of the foster care facility, and I decided to have lunch. It was still raining hard when I walked outside, and after finding shelter under the theater marquee, I considered the possibilities.

There was still no one eating at Geraldine’s, the restaurant next to the theater, but through the windows I saw a woman sitting at a table near the entrance, sorting menus. I decided to give the place a try.

“Are you open for lunch?” I asked the woman after venturing inside.

The wonderful aroma of a baking pie immediately improved my appetite. Her small, round face was lined like a monkey’s, and she was probably in her eighties, with a trim, compact figure. She stood up from the table and handed me a menu.

“We’re down to three entrees at lunch, but they’re all good,” she said in a smoky voice. “Sit wherever you like.”

I was the only customer in the restaurant and sat down at a table set for four that had a view of the sidewalk. She asked me if I wanted something to drink, and I ordered a ginger ale. She came back with the bottle on a small tray with a frosted glass tumbler.

All three choices on the menu looked appetizing, but I ordered the broiled rainbow trout, brown rice, and roasted root vegetables. She disappeared back into the kitchen, and I drank the ginger ale while watching people scramble past in the rain. No one came into the restaurant. Ten minutes later, she came back and sat down again at the table near the entrance.

“Business a little slow?” I said.

“What business?” she answered, taking a sip from a coffee cup. “We’re closing next month.”

“Sorry to hear it.”

“There are a dozen empty stores here downtown. Anyone who could afford to get out has left. All the good jobs are gone. About the only people around are on workmen’s comp or trying to win an asbestos lawsuit through one of those television lawyers.”

“It’s tough all over upstate. Are you Geraldine?”

She nodded and said, “I’ve been here sixty years.”

“That’s some run,” I said.

“Out with a whimper,” she said. “I’m glad my husband isn’t alive to see it.”

Through the plate glass front window, I watched a mother and child running along the sidewalk. Geraldine went back in the kitchen for a few minutes and returned with my meal and another ginger ale. The first taste of the lightly crusted and flaky trout fillet told me I had lucked into a special place.

“It’s delicious, really delicious,” I said.

“We can cook, all right,” she said fiercely. “I once cooked for Governor Nelson Rockefeller. He sat right over there and said it was the best meal he’d had in ten years. And Bobby Kennedy—I cooked for him too when he was running for the senate. He sat at your table.”

“Are you staying here after you close?”

“I’m staying here until they put me under next to my husband,” she said. “Just don’t know what I’m going to do in the meantime.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.