tomato aspic freckle disjointed marrow brassiere slither
alternate valve ambivalent pass remind outlet
Franklin decided on dessert before he knew what to order for dinner. As soon as he spotted the item on the menu, he had to have it. The reminder of summer afternoon lunches with his grandmother was too strong to ignore. As far as Franklin knew, Nana was the only woman, the only person on the planet for that matter, who had dessert with every single meal. Doughnuts after a Denver omelet; popsicles after soup and a salad; chocolate ice cream after meatloaf and mashed potatoes. He blamed Nana for his plump figure, but was glad to celebrate her with a blast from the past.
When the waiter came by to clear their dishes and ask if they had saved room for dessert, Franklin impatiently allowed Maggie to order first.
“Pass,” Maggie said perkily. She giggled, and the freckles on her cheeks jiggled about. Then she stopped up her mouth with a fist. She caught her reflection in the wall-length mirror and giggled some more. She gagged on the fist in her mouth, then removed said fist.
Franklin was annoyed at her ambivalence. But when his eyes slid down from her puckered lips to the hollow of her throat and the lace edges of her brassiere peeking from her dress front, he relaxed a little.
Across the room from the Franklin and Maggie, Leeland wondered what else the girl with the freckles could fit into her mouth. To change the channel of his brain TV, he looked away from her. His gaze wandered across the restaurant. Finally his focus redirected to the table he was sharing with Dani. “With an i,” she had said in a high-pitched screech.
Just then a different kind of screech erupted from the restaurant kitchen. Leeland jumped up from the table in a panic. He was tall, and could spot the commotion through the kitchen’s open door with ease. A cook was running around screaming and holding his left arm. Blood was spurting out of it like an open water valve and spraying all over the kitchen. Some bone or other protruded from the red rain, its pink marrow visible from time to time as the man lurched about.
At a table near the kitchen, a woman swooned and slithered from her chair onto the dirty floor. The maitre ‘d walked around the restaurant with ambivalent destination, alternating between the front door, the kitchen, and the back office.
Leeland saw the start of the stampede exodus. With the exception of the fainted woman and her companion, customers, wait staff, and bus boys began to move from the kitchen toward the front door. Leeland caught sight of Freckles being herded toward his table by her fat companion. Father? Date? He remembered his own date. With a spin and a running start, he grabbed Dani (with an i) up by the arm and aimed their bodies toward the open café doors. Outside in the hot summer breeze, Dani (with an i) vomited tomato aspic onto the sidewalk.