Diana straightened the small stack of papers and inserted them into the three-hole paper-punch. Leaning down on it, she punched three holes into the papers. She opened the project folder and inserted the sheets. After folding the metal clips to hold the papers in place, she closed the cover. Looking through the plastic front, she read the title aloud, "Personal Definition of Happiness and Goals for Diana Parker."
With a sad expression on her face she put the folder down. Working through her personal definition of happiness had been pure torture. Things that she had thought important to her had evaporated in the light of self examination. Her sexual revolution fell flat on its face as being trite and superficial. The portrait by Sue had shown an innocent girl on the verge of becoming a woman. She had shed her innocence like an old pair of shoes.
Things that she had dismissed without thought had come back to haunt her. She was reminded of those Saturday mornings when she and Dan would make breakfast and talk. She missed them and the only one to blame for it was her. She had pushed Dan out of the house. Dan was always willing to listen to her, but she was unwilling to share. She didn't share her life with anyone. Her relationships were superficial.
Working through her goals had been the toughest thing she had ever done. As she identified each goal, she thought about her behavior over the past few years and how she had worked against what she had wanted to accomplish. Her life had spiraled out of control. Fortunately, she had caught it before she had ruined her life.
Diana sat back in her chair thinking about Dan. She wondered when she had become convinced that she was better than him. It hurt to think that she had bought into the school dummy label that had been hung on him in school. Dan worked hard, but only because he had not been given the right tools to succeed in school. Diana said, "I've been such a fool the past few years. Dan is the smarter one of us."
Diana looked at the project folder for another minute and then put it down on the desk. High school graduation was that coming Saturday afternoon and she wondered if Dan would attend. She expected him to show up to watch her graduate, but she would understand if he didn't come.
She looked over at the other stack of papers on her desk. She was the class valedictorian and was to deliver a speech at the graduation ceremony. She wasn't pleased with the draft that she had given the Principal. It was filled with the kind of drivel that made graduation speeches so boring. How many valedictorians were going to give speeches about facing a brave new world? She didn't know. All she knew was that she didn't want to give one.
She picked up the speech and looked over it with a frown. She glanced at the project folder that she had just finished. She turned to the computer and said, "I'm not giving that speech."
Fifteen minutes after Dan opened the pizzeria a line of customers formed at the counter. Working as fast as she could, Vicki handed out coffees and blueberry muffins. In just a one week, word about the muffins had spread beyond the folks who worked at the shopping center. Housewives now included a stop at the pizzeria in their morning routine. Dan brought out another tray of muffins to where Vicki was working and said, "Here's another dozen muffins."
"That's the third dozen today," Vicki said as she rang up another sale. The people who worked in the strip mall came and left, but the housewives stayed while they ate their muffins and drank their coffees. She kind of missed the quiet of the first hour and a half of the day.
"Do you think I'll need some more?" Dan asked eyeing the line of people. A rough calculation led him to believe that there would be four or five muffins left after serving everyone in line.
"No, three dozen should be enough for today," Vicki answered. At the rate that they were getting more customers, she figured that they'd be selling four dozen a morning before long.
Three dozen muffins translated into an extra seventy dollars worth of sales in the morning. There was also an extra twenty cups of coffee sold. That resulted in a hundred and twenty dollars worth of business within the first hour of opening the pizzeria. Dan nodded his head after thinking through the implications of his sales. He said, "I'll get to work on the pizza dough."
Introducing the muffins had ruined his original cooking schedule, but he had shifted the schedule around so that he still had fresh pizza dough for lunch and dinner. Unfortunately it left him with almost no time to deal with paperwork until after the lunch rush. As he kneaded the dough, he said, "I'm going to have to hire another cook."
Having slept late that morning, Tom entered the kitchen and headed for the breakfast table where his mother and Terry were seated. He had entered the room just in time to hear his mother ask, "Are you sure you want to stay in the guest room?"
Terry frowned upon hearing the question. Her first thought was that his parents already wanted to kick her out. She glanced at Tom and then looked back at his mother. She asked, "Do you want me to leave?"
Tom's mother shook her head and answered, "No. I was just wondering if you would be more comfortable sleeping with Tom. We can get a larger mattress for his room. There's no reason for you to sleep in separate rooms."
"No, that's okay," Terry said looking at Tom's mother with wide eyes. She hadn't seen that one coming.
Rather than enter the conversation, Tom looked around the table for some way to occupy himself. Salvation was right in front of him in the form of a box of cereal, an empty bowl, and a jug of milk. He grabbed the box of cereal thinking that the wisest thing to do was eat breakfast. As long as he was eating he couldn't say something stupid.
"I know how it is to be young and full of hormones," Tom's mother said licking her lips nervously. She hadn't known how to bring up the subject of her son sleeping with a girlfriend in a tasteful manner. She added, "Things are different today. You're both young adults."
Thinking about what kinds of things Terry would say to him when they were alone, Tom said, "Mom, the sleeping arrangements are fine. We don't have that kind of relationship. She's a friend, not a girlfriend."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I just assumed," his mother said feeling uncomfortable. She looked at Tom and then over at Terry. She wondered why Terry had come here with Tom if there wasn't something romantic between them.
Thinking that it had been a mistake to come there, Terry said, "I appreciate the offer. If I was interested in Tom, I'd probably take you up on it."
"Oh," his mother said. She studied Terry for a minute wondering why Tom wasn't good enough for her. Of course, she was of the opinion that any young lady who knew him would want to be his girlfriend. The thought that it might be that Tom was the wrong gender flashed through her mind.
Tom had a pretty good idea of what his other was thinking. Shrugging his shoulders, Tom said, "It is nothing weird. I'm just not her type."
She said, "I understand. You're her beard."
Terry stared at Dan's mother in shock. She was surprised on several levels. It was hard to believe that his mother had figured it out so quickly. The idea of using Tom to deflect other men who were interested in her had never crossed her mind. She shook her head and said, "No."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I misunderstood," his mother said. She didn't think that men and women had changed that much since she was their age. It wasn't natural for a young woman and a young man to spend much time together without sex getting involved.
Uncomfortable with the topic of conversation, Tom concentrated on his cereal. He wasn't going to make the same mistake as he had made the previous evening. The cereal was sitting heavily in his stomach.
Terry looked over at Tom and said, "We share a girlfriend."
Surprised at her admission, Tom looked over at Terry. He could see that she expected to be asked to leave now. He said, "We are both fortunate enough to be loved by the same woman."
"Oh, that's interesting," Tom's mother said. She didn't know what to make out of that little announcement. She stared at her coffee cup for a minute and then asked, "Where is the lucky lady?"
"She's at her parents' house," Tom answered after glancing over at Terry.
Tom's mother shook her head and said, "You and Dan. I love you both, but you two boys just seem to attract complicated relationships."
"I wouldn't say that," Tom said studying his bowl of cereal.
"How would you describe it?" his mother asked.
Shrugging his shoulders, Tom said, "We just fall in love with exceptional women."
She knew there was a lot of truth in that. Turning to Terry, his mother asked, "Is there anything I can do to make your stay more comfortable?"
It was after lunch when Pat stepped into the pizzeria. She had been to see the new house that Sue was buying. Since she was in the area, she thought that she'd stop in to say hello to Dan. He looked up from his computer and waved to her. Smiling, she went over to the table and took a seat. She looked around and, in her gravelly voice, asked, "Where are all of the customers?"
"We chased them off," Dan answered with a smile.
Pat laughed at the idea of a small business owner actually chasing away customers. She said, "I wish we could afford to do that."
"This is our quiet time of the day. It is after lunch. Now that school is over, the teenagers will start showing up around two and spend the afternoon here," Dan said. School had been out for three days and he had already spotted the trend. He hoped that it continued since it represented a good bit of business. A lot of the turnkey kids bought their lunches at the pizzeria and that represented a significant amount of income.
"Ah," Pat said looking around the pizzeria. There were some similarities between it and her bar. Each place of business was designed to support a specific kind of client.
"So what are you doing here?" Dan asked.
"I went over to see Sue's new place. She's still over there with the real estate agent trying to negotiate the price down some more," Pat answered. She had walked around the house and had been impressed with what Sue was trying to buy. The little house in the back looked like the perfect place for Sue's painting studio.
"I'm sure she'll manage to get the price she wants," Dan said.
Knowing how men tended to view her, Pat winked at him and said, "I told the guy that I'd sleep with his wife if he'd lower the price, but he didn't seem all that interested."
Dan laughed and said, "One of these days someone is going to take you up on your offer and Betty is going to skin you alive."
Pat said, "Betty would have understood that I was only doing it for Sue."
"You're going to miss having Sue as a neighbor," Dan said looking over at Pat. He knew her well enough to know that her light- hearted banter was to hide her real feelings.
"Yeah," Pat replied with a shrug of her shoulders. The fact of the matter was that she was happy to see Sue getting on with her life. In a way, it freed her and Betty to get on with their lives. The two women had felt a lot of guilt over what had happened to Sue. Both felt that they could have done something to prevent the death of Annie, but neither one knew what it was. They had wanted to move out of that apartment for years, but had stayed to watch over Sue.
Almost as if reading her mind, Dan asked, "So what are you and Betty going to do now, move out of that apartment?"
"We are thinking about moving to a townhouse," Pat answered glancing over at Dan. She knew that she shouldn't have been surprised by Dan's question.
"You don't strike me as the kind of person that would choose a townhouse," Dan said, "I can imagine you living in an old wood house with a motorcycle parked in front, a big front porch with chairs, and a lazy dog."
Pat laughed at the comment and said, "Believe it or not, neither one of us enjoys yard work. There are lots of advantages to living in a townhouse. At least it won't be a waste of our rent money."
"I see," Dan said. Once again he was amazed at how choices were made to optimize happiness. If you didn't like lawn work or gardening, then move into a place where those things were done for you. It was simple, but he wondered how many people got caught up in the idea that they were to own a house rather than establish a home.
"What have you been up to since I've last seen you?" Pat asked. She knew that most of his time was spent at the pizzeria. You didn't start a new business by staying away from it all of the time. It was a lot of work.
"I've been watching over the pizzeria for the most part. We just moved into Ellen's house and are still settling in. I'm trying to figure out when I'll have time to mow the lawn and take care of the pool," Dan said.
"You can hire a service to take care of the pool," Pat said.
Dan nodded his head, but gestured to the store. He said, "I could do that, but all of my money is tied up in this place. I'm not paying myself all that much yet."
"I remember those days," Pat said with a small smile. The bar had reached a point of stability years ago. Now, she and Betty paid themselves a real wage. She said, "It will get better."
"Are you telling me that I'll actually make a living doing this?" Dan asked with a grin.
"Yes. I've got a feeling that you're going to be doing okay if you only have one slow hour out of twelve," Pat said.
"That's true. Things are going a lot better than I had predicted," Dan said. He glanced down at the computer screen, but the screensaver had turned on. He had just been looking at the sales figures for the past three months. The sales curves were still headed upwards at a dramatic rate.
Pat nodded her head and then said, "I better head home before Betty gets worried about me."
"Give her my regards," Dan said.
"I'm not going to tell her that I was over here. She's going to think that we're having an affair," Pat said with a wink.
Dan laughed at the suggestion knowing that she didn't mean it and said, "Anytime, Pat."
She was a big bald-headed woman dressed in leathers, but he loved her. Pat laughed and headed out of the pizzeria waving a hand over her head. One of the teenagers coming in the store took one look at her and held the door open for her. He looked a little nervous doing it.
With the end of school, lots of kids stopped by the pizzeria to put in applications for summer jobs. Dan accepted applications from everyone, but gave special preference to kids that hung around the pizzeria. He knew them and their character. He now had six part time kids working in the afternoons and evenings. It helped, but he still only had two employees who knew how to cook.
Captain Dawson entered the pizzeria with his hand around the neck of a young black man. The young man did not look to be very happy at being escorted around by an officer of the law. It was obvious by his body language that he wanted to be anywhere except where he was at the moment.
Swinging by the pizza station, Captain Dawson asked, "Where's Dan?"
"He's in the kitchen," Cathy answered.
"Thanks," Captain Dawson said. He pulled the young man over to the kitchen door and looked inside. Dan was busy kneading dough. He pulled the young man over to a table and sat down to wait for Dan to finish his work.
Fifteen minutes later, Dan came out of the kitchen and spotted the lawman seated at the table. Walking over to him, he said, "Hello, Captain Dawson. What can I do for you?"
Shaking the young man seated beside him by the neck, Captain Dawson answered, "This is Ernie Smithers. He's a troubled young lad in dire need of some guidance in his life."
"Really?" Dan asked looking at the young man.
"He's a high school drop out. He tends to get into a little trouble with the department on occasion," Captain Dawson said looking over at Ernie with a scowl.
"What kind of trouble?" Dan asked. The last thing that he needed was to have a felon working for him.
"Oh, he tends to get a little bored and paints things. He thinks he's an artist with a spray can," Captain Dawson said.
"Really?" Dan said. That wasn't a typical problem in that part of town.
"Yes," Captain Dawson said. He actually liked Ernie, but would never tell the guy that. Poking Ernie in the side with a finger, Captain Dawson said, "Go look at the art on the wall."
"Hey, don't go poking me. That's police brutality. I'll sue your ass," Ernie said glaring at the policeman.
"Shut up and go look at the art," Captain Dawson growled. He watched as Ernie slowly walked over to the mural. Shaking his head, he turned to Dan and said, "He's basically a good kid. He made some bad decisions a couple of years ago and just hasn't gotten his act together. As far as I know he hasn't stole anything since he was fifteen. He dropped out of high school, but picked up his GED last year. Since then, he hasn't done much of anything."
"I take it you want me to give him a chance," Dan said.
"If you wouldn't mind. I'm afraid that he'll get into real trouble one day if he doesn't find a direction in life," Captain Dawson said. He knew that he was putting Dan in an awkward position.
"I can probably train him to be a cook for the mornings," Dan said. He wished that he could send Ernie off to talk to Jimmy. He was pretty sure that Ernie would be more receptive to receiving advice from the older black man than a young white guy. He knew that saying something like that aloud would be considered racist, but he was only trying to be honest.
"Good," Captain Dawson said.
"I'll need him to fill out a job application form," Dan said walking over to where he kept them. He ripped one off the stack and held it out for Ernie.
"Great," Captain Dawson said. He turned to look over at Ernie and said, "Ernie. Come over here and fill out these forms. You've got a job."
"Shit," Ernie said glancing over at the policeman. He looked back at the mural wishing that he could do something that good.
"Don't give me any of that attitude," Captain Dawson said shaking his head. There were times when he wondered why he even bothered with some of the kids. He watched Ernie walk over to Dan and grab the job application from his hand.
Dan watched Ernie struggle over the job application. He wondered if Ernie had a problem reading based on the way that he acted. Shaking his head, he hoped that he wasn't making a mistake by hiring him.
Once Ernie had finished filling out the application, Captain Dawson said, "You might think twice about quitting. You'll find this job a whole lot better than county lock-up. You quit and I'll see you on your way to the county jail before you know it."
"You wouldn't," Ernie said.
With a very serious expression on his face, Captain Dawson replied, "I've got enough cases that I can put your name on to make sure you don't see the light of day for years."
Wanting a chance to have a few private words with Captain Dawson, Dan looked at Ernie and said, "I'll see you at ten on Monday morning."
Ernie mumbled, "Right."
As Ernie walked away, Captain Dawson shouted, "If you don't show up, I'll just assume that you quit."
After watching a very disgruntled Ernie leave, Dan asked, "He's done enough things for you to lock him away for years?"
"No," Captain Dawson answered with a smile.
"You would really throw him in jail knowing that he didn't do anything?" Dan asked with a frown.
"Of course not, but he doesn't need to know that."
"Why did you tell him that?" Dan asked looking over at the lawman.
"So he would stay here long enough for you to teach him a thing or two about making something of his life," Captain Dawson answered. He looked at Dan and added, "I've got to warn you, it is not going to be easy. He's got a thick skull and a bad attitude."
Making up for lost time, Amanda and her mother were talking in their kitchen while eating some homemade cinnamon buns. While tearing a small piece from her bun, Amanda said, "I've got a boyfriend now."
"You mean that boy who brought you home last night," her mother replied. Amanda had not dated much in high school. Her husband was rather strict and scared off the few boys that had asked her daughter out. At least she had gone to the Prom and other significant dating events, but she had never had a steady boyfriend.
"He's real smart," Amanda said biting her lower lip. Her parents had not exactly greeted Tom with open arms the previous night.
"I'm sure he is," her mother said. The young man had not made that good of an impression on her husband by bringing their daughter home that late. They had expected her around six and it was after eleven before she had shown up at the house. He had spent the evening pacing around the house worried about his little girl. By the time she had arrived, he was pretty angry.
"Daddy didn't seem to like him," Amanda said eating a little piece of her cinnamon bun.
"If he had brought you home at a reasonable hour then I'm sure that your father would have been a little friendlier," her mother said. She took a sip of her coffee remembering the stressful evening spent waiting for Amanda to arrive home.
Tearing a piece out of her cinnamon roll, Amanda said, "It wasn't his fault. There was something that we had to take care of first."
"What did you have to do that kept you until after eleven?" her mother asked. She had a feeling that she wasn't going to enjoy this conversation.
"Well, we were trying to find a place for Terry to stay," Amanda answered.
"That was the girl that was with you?" her mother asked.
"Yes," Amanda answered nodding her head.
"So where is she staying?" her mother asked. She had been very surprised to discover that there was another woman with them when they had arrived at the house. Things didn't seem quite normal when Tom and Terry left, but she couldn't put her finger on what wasn't right.
Amanda looked down at the table unwilling to meet her mother's eyes. She answered, "With Tom."
"He's sleeping with her, isn't he?" her mother asked thinking that her daughter had turned into a free love hippy or something. Her husband was going to blow a fuse when he found out that his daughter was sharing a boyfriend with another woman.
Unable to help herself, Amanda burst out laughing. It took her a minute to recover. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she answered, "No. He's not sleeping with her."
"So why were you looking for a place for her to stay? Why isn't she staying with her parents?"
'She isn't staying with her parents because she wanted to spend the summer with me, ' Amanda thought. Instead, she answered, "It is a long story."
"So tell it to me," her mother said. She could always tell when her daughter was trying to hide something from her. There was a story here and she had a feeling that she wasn't going to like it at all.
"She was going to stay in Austin over the summer, but I talked her into taking the summer off. She doesn't really have any place to go," Amanda answered. It was only after the answer was out of her mouth that she realized what her mother was going to ask next.
"So why didn't you invite her to stay here with you?" her mother asked with a frown.
Amanda stared at her mother trying to come up with some answer that wouldn't sound totally ridiculous. Finally, she answered, "She didn't want to stay here."
"She'd rather stay with your boyfriend?" her mother asked with a sharp edge to her voice. There was something wrong with Amanda's story and she intended to find out what was going on with her daughter.
"Uh, I guess," Amanda answered.
"You guess? You don't know why she would rather stay with your boyfriend than here with you?" her mother asked.
"Right," Amanda answered thinking that the least said the better.
Her mother stared at her for a minute and then said, "You don't have a boyfriend, do you?"
"Yes, I do. Tom is my boyfriend," Amanda answered thinking that there had to be some way to end this conversation. She wished that Tom or Terry was here. They'd be able to handle her mother's questions.
"It sure doesn't sound that way to me," her mother said.
"Tom and I are boyfriend and girlfriend. In fact, we are going out tonight," Amanda said hoping that such a flat declarative statement would put an end to the dicussion. She wasn't going to mention that Terry was coming along with them.
"Don't you think you should spend a little time with your family?" her mother asked with a frown. She had friends who talked about their kids coming home from college and acting like the old rules of the household didn't apply to them any more.
"Well, Tom's friend is off of work tonight and Tom wants to spend a little time with him at his house," Amanda answered.
"His friend? And just what does this friend of his do?" her mother asked sitting back in her chair and crossing her arms.
"He works in a pizzeria," Amanda answered.
"Oh," her mother said. Her husband wasn't going to like this at all. Not only did her daughter plan to say out all hours of the night, but she was going to do it with some lowlife who worked in a pizza parlor.
"It is not like that," Amanda said recognizing from the tone of voice her mother had used that she was headed for trouble.
"And how is it?" her mother asked.
"I think I better shut up now," Amanda said stuffing a huge hunk of the cinnamon bun in her mouth.
Lazlo Zalezac