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May 27, 2008
Batesville Installment Three
“Mornin’ Deb.”
“Mornin’ Chuck.”
That’s the way that JJ’s Chicken and Waffles opens most every morning, as its two employees walk from the parking lot to the Batesville restaurant’s doors. Debra is the manager and waitress for the joint, taking it over since her dad disappeared a couple of years back. The gossip was that it was due to a tax situation, and Debra will be the first to tell you that for once the gossip is true. Her dad JJ made some great manicotti, but he wasn’t very good at successfully cooking the books. Since he vanished she’s been running the business, the only one left in the tiny city.
Most of their clientele are people traveling on I-70, too hungry to wait until they get to either Blue Springs or Odessa, plus most of the town’s residents and a few folks who live in the area. While the name of the place may be referencing poultry and fancy pancakes, it’s really known for its Italian cuisine. In fact, they haven’t sold any chicken or waffles for over a year. Everyone in Batesville tells Debra that she should change the name, but she keeps it out of reverence to her daddy.
Chuck gets right to prepping up everything in the kitchen while Debra gets the register ready and the place swept up clean. While chopping up some cold cuts, Chuck looks up at Debra, laughing, saying, “Hey, you see someone’s moving into the old Campbell place?”
“Yeah, I saw the lady and Jaquie Folsom moving the boxes in.”
“She looks fucking hot.”
“Jaquie?” asks Debra, not really caring, more involved in the cash she’s counting out for the register.
“Well, yeah, I’d nail her too, but the lady moving in. Smokin’!” The young twenty-something Chuck licks his finger, touches it to his arm, and makes a sizzling sound that comes out more like a spittled “Ssssss.”
Debra stares at him, wondering what in the hell she’s doing here, in this shit job, working with this idiotic pervert, working in a restaurant. “So you gonna go over there, tell her you want to slide one in?”
Chuck breaks eye contact, trying to keep the smile on his face but instead having it slowly look uncomfortable. Chuck’s twenty two, overweight, although he hasn’t told his two sizes too small wardrobe that, making him look like a scene of Bill Bixby turning into Lou Ferrigno. His constantly worn ball cap covers the fact that yes, he is indeed wearing a mullet, but it doesn’t cover his barely ever brushed teeth. “Nah, I don’t know where that bitch has been.”
Debra goes back to counting her cash, smiling, “But we do know where you haven’t been.”
There isn’t any more discussion between them that morning. There normally isn’t much ever though, outside of whatever they have to discuss regarding an order. They just get back to their normal routines, getting the joint ready for its first customers of the day.
Posted by Schamberger at May 27, 2008 05:39 PM