Heathcliff - Barry Rachin (summer reads txt) 📗

rosemary and basil emanating from the home fries and specialty omelets steaming on the grill converged with the fresh-perked coffee creating an intoxicating aroma. The forest ranger in the pea-green uniform placed her broad-brimmed hat on the seat next to her but thought better of it and balanced it on the topmost peg of the mahogany coat rack over by the pastry display.

Shawn Mariano approached. “Coffee?” She nodded once. He filled a mug and placed it on the counter. “Eggs over easy, home fries and whole wheat toast?” She responded in the affirmative with another head shake plus an unintelligible grunt.
He poured a small tumbler of ice water and pushed it alongside the place setting. “I’m in love with you,” he announced bleakly.
“What did you just say?” She never even bothered to raise her head.
“Let me put your order in.” The boy went off to the kitchen. When he came back, he said, “It doesn’t matter to me that you can’t have children. A couple can always adopt.”
“Oh, dear God!” she moaned. “What did I get myself into?”
“I want to see you again, but a real date this time. We could catch a movie or go out to a restaurant like normal people.”
“You already dropped that line on me down in Pemberton when we were getting ready to go our separate ways.” She laughed abrasively making an obscene snorting noise through her nose. “You’re a senior in high school, and I’m old enough to be your freakin’ mother.”
Shawn pointed in the direction of the kitchen where the short-order chef was cooking up the breakfasts. “Hugh says he went to high school with you, and he’s only six years older than me.” ”My mother wants to meet you,” he said shifting gears.
Pearl put her fork down and stared at the yolk bleeding out onto the plate. “And why would that be?”
“I told her about us when I got home.”
“There is no us, Shawn,” she spoke purposefully weighing each word like a heavy stone. “You’re delusional.”
“What happened last week in the fire tower was a figment of my imagination?”
“You can’t blame me,” she bristled, “For acts of God and natural disasters.”
He went to retrieve the coffee pot and warmed her cup. “Did you see what just happened a moment ago?” Pearl stared at him dully. She had no idea what he was talking about.
“You called me by my name. You said, ‘There is no us, Shawn’.”
There were tears in his eyes. “That’s the first time,” he blubbered, “you ever spoke my name.”
When the boy was gone, an older gent with a grizzled beard leaned across the counter and shook a gnarled finger menacingly at Pearl. “I don’t know what you did to that poor boy, but you got to be one sadistic son-of-a-bitch!”

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Publication Date: 06-10-2010

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