Gretchen

“ Gretchen “

Another rainy night in Sun Valley in California. Albert Hammond had it right. Man it pours. I don’t mind the rain. As long as it stays outside the house. Thank God I have a roof that has never leaked. Plenty of faucets but not the roof. Most rainy nights I tend to stay home and watch the boob tube. Mainly streaming old sitcoms and movies I’ve seen once or twice. Actually, maybe five or six times. The laugh tracks they use nowadays are utterly ridiculous. If a character says, I know, The laugh track comes on. Really, really stupid. With all my vhs and dvd collection, I have enough all the way to the end of days. Who knows. I might be watching , “Bowling for dollars”, when the rapture comes. But tonight, I decided to treat myself out to dinner at a local restaurant called, believe it or not, Frank’s Restaurant.

It has been there for a very long time. Three weeks ago I passed by and there were five glass letters broken in the sign. A week later they were fixed. I googled and found out that his restaurant is used in lots of movies to refer back to the past if it is of the science fiction genre. So, here I am. Made it without any issues that the rain can cause. At least this time. Walking in I notice this cute blonde waitress, I’m guessing is in her late forties, behind the counter. I take the seat on the end because it has more leg room. For some unknown reason I felt her staring at me. As she gets closer to take my order, she pauses to lean on the counter and just look me up and down. I ask, take a picture if you like. She answers, I don’t need one. So, what can I get you? I wanted to say, how about another waitress, but she was just too damn cute. How about just a bowl of good hot chili? No problem, she replies then slowly walks away to help another customer on the other end of the counter. After a few minutes, she returned with my bowl of chili. Anything else she asks. Yes. What’s that she says? I reply with, have we met before? Tilting her head slightly to the right she answers, not sure yet. I figured, why dwell on it so I finish my chili and drive carefully home in the rain. I can’t really say that her inquisitiveness of me wasn’t a bother, because it sure as hell was. What was stupid about the whole thing was, I forgot to look at her nametag. I pride myself, whenever I am talking with anyone, to always use their name in our conversation. It’s important to me, so I figure it is just as important to them.

As I laid down for the night, I tried to visualize her uniform and then it happened. It was bright as day. I knew why I didn’t get her name. She wasn’t wearing a nametag after all. I knew what I had to do. By golly, I will find out tomorrow. After a good night's sleep, I woke up early and started my day. First a hot cup of tea, just plain black pekoe, and a Svenhard’s brand breakfast claw for breakfast. Mmm, mmm good. Then I’ll drive over to the diner and get that cute gals name. When I got to the diner, I asked the guy behind the counter if he knew what name was. Ralph said he thought her name was Gretchen, but that I should come in tonight to make sure. I thanked him and left. In all my years, I’ve only ever met one girl named Gretchen. And even then I did not meet her face to face because she was involved in a collision with a car, my car. It seemed she hit a rock while riding her bike in the rain and I slammed on the brakes as soon as she appeared in front of my car. I could only find out that she didn’t die, which I was very thankful for. But I did find out that her name was Gretchen. That accident has haunted me for so many years, but life goes on, right. Anyway, that happened in New Jersey and this is sunny California. What are the odds? Plenty. Tonight I’ll just get her name and maybe a future date. Wouldn't that be cool? So I went home and spent the rest of the day just working on organizing my tools. I must admit, I kept looking at my cell for the time. When it was an hour away for me to leave to see her, I put some nice jeans on and a polo shirt to show off my physique and my favorite white cowboy hat. As soon as my alarm started buzzing, I was on my way to the diner.

Praise the Lord, it stopped raining. No issues today. I entered the diner with a smile and couldn't stop after noticing her behind the counter. I knew this was going to be a great day when I was the empty stool and the end of the counter. Just as I sat down, I heard a loud yee haw from the other end of the counter. Sure enough it was Gretchen. What can I do for you cowboy, she asks? As I was going to answer her she said, hold that thought. As she made her way slowly to another table, I noticed a full left leg brace she was wearing. At that point, all I wanted to do was leave quickly and quietly. When she returned she noticed the change in my expression and asked if I was okay. Even though I wanted to split so badly, I had to know. So I asked. She told me the story and my heart sank. It was her. The Gretchen I hit. The Gretchan that wouldn’t walk like normal again. The Gretchen I saw lying in hospital in pain because of me. But mostly. The Gretchen whose life I wanted to become a part of. After telling me her story she asks, do you know me? Holding back the realization of finding out what happened I reply, No but I would like to. She smiled and said I get a 30 minute break in a few minutes cowboy. I said my name is Mark. She replied, nice to meet you Mark, my name is Gretchen. I replied, I know.