“You okay?” I inquired, addressing the reddened-faced man sporting a tightly trimmed silver goatee and sophisticated glasses. “No,” he replied, his eyes darting past me to the overcrowded lobby, then to the piles of to-go orders, and for a fleeting moment, on me. After providing him with my name, he jotted it down on a well-folded yellow-lined notepad. “That’ll be 15-20 minutes, but the food will take an hour.”
I shrugged off the waiting time. With Denny’s as the only option on Christmas, normalcy seemed to have taken a backseat. “This is like Covid,” my friend remarked, observing the dozen or so plastic bags tied with receipts stapled to them, and the parking lot being the only area with cars in Bonney Lake. Except for the movie theatre, but it wasn’t serving up burgers and fries the way we craved.
After 15 minutes with no one manning the front counter, a lively twenty-something girl with a bouncy ponytail took charge. “C’mon, friends, I’m seating everybody.” “Sorry, friend,” she said, turning and accidentally bumping into a customer. “Okay, friends,” she addressed us, “Is this the party for Jaclynn? Yes! Great. Let’s get you seated, friends.” Her energy was of the manic, crazy kind—drawn from the deepest resources that don’t seem to exist. She was the captain of this ship, with twelve other black-collared, black-slacked twenty-somethings bustling around ladling soup, arranging condiments, or simply waiting.
Once seated, our two 4-year-olds cozied up next to each other and engaged in an hour-long wrestling match. Standing up, sitting down, and tumbling onto the floor, they turned our crescent moon-shaped booth into a WWF arena. A major head bonk and a brief separation provided entertainment for the evening. At one point, Dave attempted to divert Evelyn and Ethan’s attention to a word search with a coloring crayon. Lindsay observed, “Look at Dave, he’s so good. So patient.” In agreement, Dave leaned forward, saying, “I’m trying to prevent a homicide here.”
It’s Christmas—who cares? Let the kids be kids. Holding hands, they led us out of the restaurant. In the parking lot, they kissed each other goodbye. To top it off, Evelyn jumped into an extra-large puddle before our final journey back home.
As it turned out, we never made it to Sky Island for Christmas light viewing. I suppose that’s what happens when an impromptu visit with friends evolves into an impromptu dinner date at Denny’s.
Love,
Jaclynn
Going On 40 