Saturday, July 16th, 6:00 P.M.
Yesterday I ran into Sparra at the cultural
center. He was helping kids perfect
their jumpshot while I was looking at the want ads. We started talking about music, video games,
and all the work he was doing and I wasn't.
Over the course of the conversation Sparra mentioned how he hadn't heard
from Delany, Matthew, and Wanda in a while.
Conveniently enough I had their email addresses in my Hipster, except
for Matthew because I never bothered to put it in there. We made plans to meet for lunch today at
Ree's, a fine Velasian dining place downtown.
I say "fine" but what I really mean is fine to people who don't
know any better and really like breadsticks.
Sparra and I showed up early for lunch. Sparra showed up early because he was really
excited about reconnecting with people.
I showed up early because I had nothing better to do. We had to wait for the rest of our party
before we were seated, so Sparra and I started talking.
Sparra got my attention by first hitting me on the
arm. "You pick up the new Klavier
CD?" Sparra's the one who got me
into Klavier, although I suspect he's into them because their guitarist is hot
as hell.
"I didn't so much pick it up as much as I stole
it online." Yes, I steal music
online. Deal with it.
"Have ya listened to that third track,
Candyass?"
"With that sick guitar solo?"
"Yes!"
The two of us high fived, which grabbed the attention of the verbrecher hostess.
"Sorry miss." The hostess walked away, shooting us dirty
looks as she did so.
"What's her problem?"
"I don't know."
Just then we caught wind of a conversation happening
on the other side of the short wall that separated the waiting area from the
dining area. Sparra and I got right up
against the wall so we could hear better.
"-and so I told that ashy motherfucker,
"Look freton, it doesn't matter that I hit your car with my car and now
your piece of shit is a mangled piece of shit.
I am a verbrecher, and you are a no good opfer piece of shit. Now get the fuck out of my face!"
"You put that freton in his place." There was the sound of two people high
fiving.
"You know what," then I hear a heavy
click, "if I had pulled this blade on him, I would have gutted him like a
fish. Just like I do to any opfer I
see."
Sparra then stood up on a bench that was against the
short wall. So that his head popped up
over it. He started addressing the
people on the other side in a playful tone.
"Hello. You said you wanted
to do something with me?" After he
said that, Sparra flashed this thousand watt smile that served to taunt who he
was addressing. I stood up on the bench and
peered over the wall just in time to see the embarrassed look on the people on
the other side. We got a laugh out of
that. A good long laugh. A laugh that lasted untill Delany walked in
the door of the restaurant.
"Well, it's good to see you two enjoying
yourselves." Seeing Delany made
Sparra and I sit up and take notice. I
didn't know why Sparra took notice but I know why I did. "You gonna tell me what you find so
funny?"
I got Sparra's attention by hitting him on the
arm. "Dude, tell her what you
did."
"Is Wanda with you by any chance?" I found this to be strange. It seems as if Sparra had completely
forgotten what had just happened.
Delany took this in stride. "Oh, she's outside on her
phone." Then Wanda entered the
restaurant and I learned why Sparra had taken notice. The look on Sparra's face upon seeing Wanda
was one of pure delight.
Wanda finished placing her cellphone in her bag then
turned and saw us. "Hey you
two."
Sparra made no effort to mask his delight. "Hi.
It's good to see you."
I got up and made my way to the hostess's station,
efforting not to get in Sparra's eye line.
"Great. Now that our party's
here, let's see about getting seated."
I rang the bell on the hostess's station. I waited a moment then rang it again. Then, in my impatience, I rang it
annoyingly. Finally, the hostess showed
up.
"Yes sir, I can hear you, how can I help
you?"
"Our complete party has arrived."
"Just the four of you?"
"Yep."
The hostess, efforting to mask her annoyance,
gathered some menus and said, "Follow me." The hostess lead us to a table where the four
of us took our places. Sparra pulled out
a chair for Wanda, which she found to be odd.
She didn't find it odd that Sparra was being charming, it was odd that
he was being charming to her. The
hostess have us our menus, took our drink orders, then left to tend to people
who didn't annoy her.
I began looking over the menu and was shocked by
what I saw. "Wow. Everything here is so damn expensive. They even charge for water."
Delany agreed.
"Yeah. Even if I could
afford it, I really don't want to eat this much pasta. Which one of you thought of coming here
anyway?"
I glanced at Sparra, who quickly came to his own
defense. "Hey, I didn't know the
food here cost so much. I just hear some
people at work talk about how good this place is. Besides, I don't hear Wanda complaining about
anything."
Without missing a beat, Wanda replied, "My boss
owns this place, so I get a discount."
My greed was nearly embarrassing. Nearly.
"Can the rest of us get in on that discount?"
Wanda couldn't help but giggle at my greed. "Yes, of course."
Wanting to appear to be generous, magnanimous, and rich,
Sparra said, "Then I'm picking up the tab for lunch."
Grabbing the waitress's attention in order to
facilitate a joke, Delany said, "Excuse me, miss, can I get the pan fried
filet minogue stuffed inside the oven roasted seasoned pheasant stuffed inside
salt cured suckling pig with the 1923 Chateau however you pronounce that
absurdly expensive bottle of wine, please?" The annoyed waitress walked away as we all
shared a hearty laugh.
Wanda dampened the laughter when she said, "At
least I get benefits. What do you get at
your jobs?"
Delany held up her hand and said,
"Papercuts." The sight of
Delany's bandaged hand made me wince and stop laughing. "Yeah, this is what happens when you
stuff envelopes all day."
Sparra had an inquiry. "Don't most companies have machines that
do that?"
Delany had an answer. "They do. However, I work for a charity that can't
afford to give me a raise, much less make my job obsolete."
I chimed in so that I can start whining. "At least you have a job that can be
made obsolete."
Wanda was amazed by this. "You still don't have a job?"
I continued to whine. "Nope."
Delany was concerned. "If you don't have a job, how did you
plan to pay for lunch?"
I had an answer for Delany. Not one that quelled her concerns, but an
answer. "Well, let me put it this
way: I wore my running shoes today."
Sparra then tried to turn his charm on again. "Speaking of shoes, I notice you've got
quite an exquisite pair of heels on today, Wanda. What do you do to be able to afford those
fine kicks?"
Wanda then became extremely quiet. What she said next she said with a great deal
of hesitation before every word. "I
am a stripper."
I could tell by the look on Sparra's face that he
regretted bringing up Wanda's shoes.
Delany tied to mask her shock by taking a drink of water. I made a regrettable attempt to break the
tension. "So a strip club owner
owns Ree's? Interesting."
I don't know if it was my joke that did it to her,
although I hope it wasn't, but at this moment Wanda started breaking out on
tears. Sparra attempted to console
her. "Look, stripping isn't that
bad. I was thinking about going into
stripping before I got on at the Post Office."
Wanda slightly composed herself and began to spill
her problems. "No, it's not that
the stripping that's bad. Stripping, and
the pole work that comes with it, is actually a great way to get some
exercise. The bad thing about the job is
the clients." Wanda took a moment
to dab her eyes with one of the napkins at the table. The rest of us didn't say anything. I was afraid at what might come next. "The catcalls and the names are nearly
unbearable. I didn't know what a couple
of the names meant untill I looked them up online and learned how disgusting
they were. They way they handle me is
equally disgusting. Slapping my ass to
get my attention, groping my breasts the moment I get within arm's length,
forcing me down on their laps by grabbing me by the crotch. I swear, some nights when the all verbrecher
all drunk crowd is hyped enough, the only thing keeping them from assaulting me
as a group is the bodyguard openly displaying their loaded assault
rifles."
That was the last thing Wanda said before she began
flooding her face with tears. Our group
lunch didn't go on for much longer after that.
Wanda was the first to leave, she wasn't going anywhere in particular,
she just felt she had to leave. Sparra
settled the bill and chased off after Wanda, attempting to apologize as he did
so. Delany went back to work, saying she
was swinging by the drug store to get some more bandages on the way. I went home, completed some more levels in
Shadow Core while submitting more job applications online. I hope the future hold better things for this
little group of ours. It's got to get
better than this, right?
Hato Shurtleff
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