Chapter Twenty Nine
Mr. Dunavant had Fred get as many pots and bowls together as possible. Like any good kitchen they had plenty of hot water. Fred and Tommy were going to be the ones to keep Mr. Dunavant and Leo supplied.
Ben, Sheila and Roberta were sent about the task of finding every available towel and getting them rolled up and available for use. Leo came up with the idea of fashioning a pillow out of a couple of large towels. That way he wouldn't have to lay on his own arms. That could get quite painful in itself if it took them very long to clean and re-stitch those wounds.
Ben and Tommy agreed to be “take out” specialists for the paltry sum of a hamburger a day for a week. Bert and Mrs. P set them up with their own table outside, a handful of menus plus a couple of order pads. The most urgent order came from Mr. Dunavant. If a guy comes up riding a dark blue motorcycle, get him inside as soon as possible. They had no idea what kind of condition he might be in.
Everything went well for the first fifteen minutes, at least. Most of the folks already knew what they wanted, anyway. And, since the guys had already tried everything on the café’s limited menu, their job was not so hard at all.
Inside the café everything went like clockwork. Since Sheila and Roberta didn’t have to take orders, they were free to help prepare the meals and pack them in ‘to go’ boxes. The team had done a good job of covering the picture window and the front door to keep prying eyes from peeking in. Whenever Arthur got there, they had to make sure that they had as much privacy as possible. They were still not sure what all the secrecy was about but they figured Arthur would tell them when he got there.
After they finished securing the café, they got themselves a drink and sat down at the table nearest the door. Mrs. P asked the obvious question, “So, Marci, do I understand that you’re going to have Brian and Arthur here at the same time?”
Marci closed her eyes and answered with a weary smile, “I……I…. guess so. If I was ever going to plan something I sure wouldn’t have planned it this way.”
“Did I hear one of the girls say that Brian might propose to you tonight?” she continued.
“That was probably going to be the plan, but……” Marci finished her sentence with a shrug of her shoulders.
The front door barely opened and a small voice asked, “Marci? We got here a little early. Is that Ok?”
Her eyes brightened and her mouth dropped open for a second. She got up, hurriedly went to the door and pulled it the rest of the way open. “Dennis. Grandmother Barton,” she exclaimed. “Come on in.” She reached over to give Annette a quick peck on the cheek and then knelt down in front of Dennis.
His big grin betrayed his missing two front teeth and his freckles looked even bigger in person. “Dear God in Heaven,” she proclaimed, “you are cuter in person than you are on Facebook. Give me a big hug you little ragamuffin you.”
He eagerly threw his arms around her neck and gave her the biggest hug of his life. As he grinned at the people standing behind Marci, he proudly declared, “This is my sister.”
“We see that,” answered Mrs. P with a big grin of her own.
With a grunt Marci picked him up in her arms and paraded him to meet the crew. Since they were all standing in a line she introduced them as they walked by. “This is Bert, this is Sheila, this is Fred, and this is Mrs. P.”
Each one of the ladies had to take their turn kissing him on the cheek as they greeted him. Of course, Mrs. P made the biggest show with a resounding smack. Dennis gave the typical six-year-old response of wiping the kisses off and saying with a big smile, “Golly, you ladies sure do kiss a lot.” Of course, the ladies thought that that was the cutest thing that they had ever heard.
Mr. Dunavant stepped up to rescue the young lad by sticking out his hand and saying, “Master Dennis, it is a pleasure to meet you, sir. My name is Mr. Dunavant and this is my star pupil Leo.”
Dennis shook his hand and then leaned over to shake Leo’s hand and said to both of them, “Pleased to meetcha.”
Marci sat down pulled him onto her lap. “Oh, my gosh you can get heavy in a minute can’t you?”
He giggled.
“Now, it’s my turn to give you a kiss,” she said as she held his face in his hands and planted one right on his lips. With a non-menacing smile she warned, “And, you’d better not try to wipe that one off if you know what’s good for you, Sport.”
“No way, Jose,” he answered. He put his arm around her neck and held his cheek to hers as he continued, “Besides that you’re my sister and you’re beautiful.”
Bert put her hand on her hip and pretended to be huffy, “And just what are we, chopped liver?”
Everybody laughed as poor little Dennis was caught by his words. His eyes got bigger and bigger and his face got redder and redder as he looked from Marci to the ladies and back. Finally he shook his free hand in anxiety as he whispered out loud to Marci, “Help me,” and tried to hide his face on her shoulder.
Fred answered for the ladies, “Don’t you dare help him, Marci, we love the little dickens just the way he is, sweet and sassy. Now you tell Aunt Fred what you want to eat and I’ll fix it for you.”
He looked at his grandmother and asked with toothless smile, “Can I Grandma?”
“Sure you can, Sweetie,” she answered. “And they even have a hamburger with your favorite food, chili. It’s called the volcano burger.”
“Volcano burger,” he exclaimed. He looked at Marci and asked, “Why do y’all call it a volcano burger?”
She replied, “Well, it’s because we pile the chili on top of the hamburger like a volcano mountain. And….it’s just a little hot. But we can tone it down for you.”
“Oh, no,” he shot back, “I like it hot, don’t I Grandma?”
“Yes, indeed he does,” she answered, “but start him off with your mild version and bring the bottle of hot sauce over just in case.”
“OK!” he almost exploded with excitement. In a flash, he was down from Marci’s lap and slid into a chair at an adjoining table. He patted the table at the place next to him and said, “Come on, Sis. Let’s eat together.”
Sheila and Bert rushed over and sat down at the other two chairs before Marci ever got out of hers. Sheila patted the place opposite her and said, “Yeah, come on over, Sis, and sit at the family table.”
Dennis sat back in his chair, looked at both of them shyly warned with a smile, “OK, y’all can sit with us, but no kissing.”
As if it was planned that way, Ben brought in four orders and handed them to Bert, “Four hot ones to go, ol’ Berty Bert.”
“Alrighty,” she replied as she took the orders from him, “guess we’re in high demand, Sheila, let's go.”
As the girls got up to go, Ben said to Dennis, “Hey, fella. You wanna come outside and hang around with the men?”
He looked up at him, started swinging his legs back and forth and simply said, “Nope.”
As everyone else snickered, Mr. Dunavant quipped, “Looks like your reputation has inched its way into the surrounding community.”
Annette quickly added, “As far as two hours away.”
Ben raised his finger as he started to say something but thought better of it, “I…….think I’ll go outside and get some fresh air.” He spun on his heels and exited the café shaking his head.
Jim quipped as he watched Ben go through the door, “I wish he would catch on to his Chemistry that fast.”
Everyone chuckled at the joke while Marci pulled up a chair and sat down next to her brother. While they were waiting for his volcano burger, the two of them got lost in conversation, Marci with her questions and Dennis with his answers. Even when Sheila placed the bowl in front of him, he barely interrupted what he was saying to tell her ‘thanks.’
It was very hard to tell which one was the most fascinated. They looked at each other as if there was no one else in the room. Annette hadn’t seen a smile on her grandson that big in a long time. She knew t
hat he could rattle on a little bit but he was building up a greater head of steam than she had heard from him in a long time. The only time he stopped was when he took a bite of chili and chewed it.
That’s when Marci had a chance to rattle a little herself. No one in the room had ever heard Marci laugh as hard as she did while she was listening to him. It wasn’t like they had just met. It was like they had known each other for years and were catching up on their latest news.
Marci couldn’t take her eyes off of him for a second and the only time Dennis wasn’t looking at her was when he was finding the next spot in his volcano burger to dig into.
Annette spilled an obvious secret to everyone that would bring almost an avalanche of chuckles and laughter. Whenever Dennis would begin to talk, he would kick his legs back and forth under his chair. When he would eat and listen to Marci, he would stop and hook them on the chair legs.
Orders had started coming in and Sheila, Fred and Bert were moving. There was a crowd of people outside the door. Ben was popping in and out with regularity. Mrs. P was thinking about getting up to help. But, for Dennis and Marci the café was a million miles away.
Ben stuck his head in the door, looked at Marci and said, "U-h-h-h, Brian is out here and he wants to see you outside for a moment. He said it's very important." Without waiting for an answer he shut the door.
Marci could feel her heart beating in her temples as she stared at Ben. She looked at Grandmother Barton for a moment before she got up from their table. "Dennis, Sissy will be right back. I....have to go see somebody, Ok?"
"Ok," he said with a smile, "I won't let nobody get your seat."
Marci chuckled and kissed him on the forehead as she stepped toward the door. When she opened it, she found out that Ben and Tommy were standing in front of it dutifully keeping anyone from trying to enter.
Brian was standing just a few feet away. He showed only a faint smile as he held his hand out to her and nodded toward the parking lot across the street.
She took a deep breath and reached for his hand. He tenderly took it. Instead of insisting on interlocking their fingers as he normally did, he just held three of her fingers loosely in his grip.
He was silent until they got far enough away from the crowd that no one could hear them. Still, he spoke softly, "How long before Arthur gets here?"
"How did you know?"
"My State Department contact in the Philippines gave me a pieced together account," he answered without a smile. This was the most serious look she had seen from Brian. "They're sending a man over to film Arthur giving his account of the incident. And, he'll probably have...God only knows how many questions that will require answering. I have orders to be with him while he's here and listen to everything he says. I don't really think Arthur would say anything he wasn't supposed to. It's just a precaution because of the possibility of how he might react to whatever anesthesia they might use."
She answered, "I understand. And so will Mr. Dunavant and Leo."
"Answer me this," he asked as he pointed to the sign in the window. "Why did they put up the sign Disaster Preparedness Drill?"
"They were looking for a good reason to block off the windows while they cleaned Arthur's wounds. They didn't want anybody to know the real reason Arthur was coming here," she answered.
He finally smiled as he commented, "That's a brilliant idea. I can flash my badge and go in to watch as if I was judging their performance. When the State Department guy gets here we'll make it seem like he's filming a preparedness lesson or something."
Their eyes met for a brief moment. Marci looked away quickly under the pretense of looking for Arthur. He chuckled, "You finally admitted to yourself that you love him, didn't you?"
She looked at the ground before looking back at him. "You knew?" she asked.
He chuckled again as he answered her softly and very sweetly, "It's a beautiful thing to see a woman so very deeply in love with someone. I just wish that that someone could have been me."
"Brian...."
"Is Bert free for the evening?"
It was her turn to chuckle as she jabbed at him, "You bounced back pretty quickly, didn't you?"
"Sweetheart," he answered with a wide grin, "I dropped a hundred dollars apiece on these dinner theater tickets. This is my money. It doesn't come out of an expense account."
Marci smiled and promised him, "She'll be ready by 6 p.m. I promise. And, you'll have a great time. She's a lot of fun to be with."
The sound of a motorcycle coming toward them brought their conversation to a close.
Chapter Thirty