686: “So, he . . .”
What a Piece of Work I Am, Chapter 17
17
“SO, HE TOOK ME OUT to dinner that night. I make that sound so grand. We went to a diner—”
“The Babbington Diner.”
“No. I thought of it, and even suggested it to him, but at the last minute, I changed my mind. I figured that the Babbington Diner was sure to be full of older people, so none of the kids I knew were likely to be there—”
“Indeed, the youth of Babbington shunned it for that very reason.”
“Originally, I had thought that we should go there for that reason, so that we wouldn’t run into any of the kids and the evening wouldn’t be—you know—turned into a kid’s thing.”
I kept my thoughts to myself.
“But then, the more I thought about it, I began to tell myself—”
“ ‘Are you nuts? Don’t you want to show this guy off? Don’t you want to see those little maids from school going all dreamy-eyed and drooly when he walks through the door?’ ”
“So I directed him to that diner on the eastern edge of town, the one with a Western theme—”
“—the Manifest Destiny Diner—”
“—where all the kids hung out.”
“And when Guy’s Golden Hawk pulled into the parking lot of the Manifest Destiny Diner—”
“You’re right! He did have a Golden Hawk.”
“Of course. I remember Guy. I’m sure I do. The memory is strong, because I envied him doubly. He had you, and he had a Hawk.”
“With those fins! A very sharp car! Literally!” She stretched out on the sofa, on her back, and settled her head in my lap. “Peter,” she asked, “why is the past so ridiculous?”
“Maybe it seems ridiculous because we actually learn something as we go along,” I suggested.
“You know,” she said, “you could be right. Maybe we live and learn.”
GUY’S GOLDEN HAWK turned into the parking lot of the Manifest Destiny Diner. Three young women, roughly Ariane’s age, were sitting in a corner booth with a view of the parking lot. They watched the car with interest.
“Hey, who’s that?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know anybody who’s got a car like that.”
“Do you see that guy? I’m dying.”
“Who’s with him? I can’t tell.”
“He’s letting her out—”
“Oh, my God, it’s Tootsie Koochikov.”
“How’d she ever get a guy like that?”
“How? You’re asking how she got a guy like that?”
“Oh, yeah. Of course.”
They fell to giggling and tittering, snorting and chortling, and trying to hide it. Ariane and Guy approached the door of the diner. Guy stepped in front of Ariane and swung the door open for her. This was so unfamiliar a courtesy that she nearly stepped on him, but she recovered and made something like a graceful entrance. She had a feeling, as she slid into a booth, at the opposite end of the diner from the three girls, that she might have turned a corner in her life, that she might have started traveling in another direction.
Ariane found Guy very attentive, and she was flattered by his interest in her. They ate and talked, and Ariane was certain that he was actually paying attention when she was talking. She watched his eyes, and she could see that his mind wasn’t wandering. He wasn’t even thinking about what to say next. He was just listening to her. She had the feeling that she was very lucky, and with that feeling her mind began to wander a little. She wondered if any of her friends were around to see her with this handsome guy, this mysterious stranger. She glanced in the mirror, let her eyes roam the room, and smiled when she saw that they were being watched.
[to be continued]
In Topical Guide 686, Mark Dorset considers Cars: Studebakers: Golden Hawk from this episode.
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