Run Chicken Run

Lacey stared across the table of the booth, her arms crossed her foot bouncing under the table with impatience. Her coffee cup sat almost empty while Dave’s cup was still full.

Why was Dave so stubborn? Why wouldn’t he just listen instead of interrupting her and then lecturing her? Where was Angel and Kev? What is taking them so long!

“Lace, look, I know what you’re thinking, I understand”

Oh, but do you Dave really? Do you have any idea what it’s like to be me?

He leaned forward, his presence pushed Lace further back into her booth seat, the stiff fabric pushing back. 

“I don’t know why you need to keep looking for jobs that don’t pay, why can’t you just pick up something… waitressing, barista, zookeeper,...librarian for Pete’s sake!” His voice rising steadily like a car pushing up a hill.  

Shut up Dave, people are looking…why are you such a bully?! 

Lacey’s legs criss crossed into a knot under the table and she pushed her nails into the flesh of her upper arms. 

Dave rumbled on, “It’s important to keep moving forward. Della understands and she’s been really supportive at home. You can’t keep isolating and hiding from the world. We’ve all suffered so much and honestly, I can’t deal with more than one of y’all having a crisis at the same time.”

Stay cool girl, stay cool, he thinks he’s being helpful! She blinked and refocused back on Dave’s face, so similar to Dad’s, his voice a more unpredictable baritone, his advice less useful. In fact it was painful, with Dad gone, Dave’s attempts to fill the void only intensified Lacey’s longing for Dad’s wisdom and insight.

“...just because there’s been a downturn in the economy, doesn’t mean there aren’t jobs. Look even Dathan’s working at Dairy Queen and he has a Masters degree. Okay so it’s his family’s business and he’ll own the franchise so… well I’m just saying that you need to stop shutting down every opportunity that comes your way…”

Lacey took two deep breaths and unwound from her side of the booth, placing both hands on the table she pushed herself upright and out of the seat.

“Put a pin in that, I’m going to the bathroom.”

And walked away without looking to see if he was frustrated at her silence or sudden departure.

She shoved the swinging door aside, hard, and heard a muffled, 

“Ex -CUSE me, slow down there!” As a frowning face was revealed. 

Lacey stared down, her breath caught in her throat. 

No, No WAY! 

The pallid doughy faced woman stood still for a second, her neck craned upward from Lacey’s midsection to her face.

“Oh my God, uh, excuse me…” Her arm thrust out as she pushed past Lacey just as Lacey’s sister Angel stepped into the short restroom hall. Angel and Lacey were both tall, almost six feet each, with similar builds and similar fierce expressions.

The short pudgy woman stood trapped awkwardly between them, cloistered out of sight from the rest of the bagel shop, with Angel’s back blocking the exit  

“Now girls, I…” she swallowed hard and nudged her heavy red spangled glasses up her sweating nose and clutched her square leather pocketbook over her stomach defensively. In the seconds that felt like hours, the tick tick of her watch sounded weirdly loud. With a snap, her open mouth shut, she pulled herself up and pushed her elbows out akimbo to make more room for herself between the two monoliths that were Lacey and Angel, 

“I have no desire for a scene and you two don’t want to be charged with assaulting an officer of the court, do you?” Her face brought so many memories flooding back for Lacey. She felt like she was falling but her expression was frozen. 

Angel looked at Lace and then down at the top of the fidgeting woman’s head, as she had ducked and was fumbling in her purse, for what? A phone? Pepper spray?

Behind Angel the daylight was blocked, “What’s up?” It was Dave’s voice, “Everthing alrigh…” 

His voice trailed away. He put his hand out against the wall to steady himself. If the girls were intimidating, Dave was terrifying. Over six foot, a mass of muscle, clad in an impeccably tailored black suit, his piercing eyes and goatee made him look like he could equally be a lawyer, a body guard or a high end bouncer.

“Mrs. Hattel” He stated her name with a flat intonation, giving away nothing.

Her voice started with a quaver, “Excuse me, you are all in my way...” but steadied, “Let me pass.”

With that Dave put a hand on Angel’s shoulder, easing her towards the wall and Mrs. Hattel puffed away, her elbows still pointing east and west, her pocketbook clutched up against her bosom and her heels clickety clacking across the tile floor.

"Is nobody going to say it?" Angel hissed. Her eyes swiveled from Lacey’s fixed expression and clenched jaw to Dave’s bland stare. “Well, I will, that woman is scum! To be willing to defend a drunken bast-” 

“Enough!”

It was Lacey not Dave that spoke, “Did Kev see her?” 

This question was enough to push all three of them out of the alcove and into the wide space of the bagel shop. Across the intervening tables, the babbling and clatter of a Saturday morning brunch rush, sat Kev, his too skinny tall frame tucked in their booth against the back wall, his back to his three older siblings, staring out the window. They collectively sighed as they threaded between the tables. But as they drew up to the table, all three could see Kev‘s shoulders were shaking. Was he crying?

He turned and there were tears in his eyes, but he was laughing in his silent way.

“You should have seen her run for her car, it was like a chicken being chased!”