Page 6 of Miles. Alton & The 9:04
Thom's hope for a lovely afternoon with the lady was slowly dwindling.“I'm simply suggesting, Agnes, that if the establishment or the company for the afternoon is displeasing to you, we can easily take the loss and walk away,” he said.
“Oh, heck no!I drove all this way.I'm eating,” she said, looking him up and down.“You're taller than I expected.I know the profile said six feet, but you know how that goes and men fudge the numbers a bit.Okay.What else do they have to eat in this place?”
He cocked his head, “Did you simply come for the free meal?”
“Yeah, and to see what you were working with,” Agnes said, looking at his crotch.You have big feet and those hands have long thick fingers, but is that enough to handle me?”
Thom stood for a moment.He watched her face, thinking the kind eyes were a ruse to house an unfettered, untrained, feral demon.He wasn't making any comments on the wide bottom which seemed to move on its own, even though the woman was stationary.
A wry smile graced his lips, “I can handle all of you just fine.Shall we go in?”
Thom walked behind her, using every skill in him to not watch the hips, which appeared to bump customers and tables as she went along.Thankfully, the waiter seated them immediately, and Thom helped her with the seat.He also took a seat across from her, coming to a conclusion on how the day would end without any prompting from the lady.
“Agnes, on paper we are a good match; however, in person, not so much,” he said.
She was frowning at him again as she looked up from the menu.“What are you saying?Oh, this half portion of baked pasta sounds good.The chicken fried steak does as well if I ate fried foods.I think I'm going to order a steak.I'm sorry; what were you saying?”
He blinked several times, wondering where in the fresh hell this woman came from and why in person, she was so different from the gentlewoman he'd corresponded with over the past few months.“I'm attempting to tell you, my sweet lady, I don't think you and I shall work out,” he said.
“I know you're not about to make an issue about the size of my ass, considering you've got a deformed ear,” Agnes spewed, almost growling at him.
He offered a smile.“The wide ass is not an issue.The ass that is speaking is.However, you came all this way for a meal, which I shall honor.It was a pleasure meeting you.”
From his wallet, he removed a crisp hundred and laid upon the table.“For your lunch and fuel for driving over.I'm sorry it didn’t work out.I wanted to see your teapots.”
“I was planning to show you more than my teapot,” she said, frowning at him again.
Thom stood slowly.He was speechless as he looked at the woman.He sighed deeply, having no words to add to her retort as he left the restaurant to head to the office.He'd taken off from work for the afternoon to spend with Agnes, but he could scratch that potential bride off the list.
“Jesus,” he muttered as he climbed into his Jeep and headed to the station.“I didn't think our first meeting would be a sparring match.Good grief.”
He arrived at the station, feeling out of sorts.Randy Muldoon, a local kid, about 12 years old, often darted through the train station on his skateboard.The ramps and smooth concrete were a constant hassle between Thom and the local skater boys.
“Randy, why aren't you in school?”Thom called out.
“The same reason you're single,” the boy countered.
“Your Auntie doesn't want me to stay single, you little toilet roll,” he called after the boy.
Randy rolled up to him, offering his small hand for a fist bump.“Good one, but even you're too white and nerdy for my Auntie, and she's white and nerdy, Train Man.”
“You should be in school.Off with you,” Thom said, waving the kid away.
“Hey, can I still get some help with my history report?It's due next week,” Randy said.
“My weekend is kind of booked, but get me what you've done already, so I’ll know how much I have to help you fill in,” he said to the boy.
“What I have right now is what you see, nothing,” Randy replied.
“If I place your nothing in front of me, and you ask me for help, then you're not asking for help.You're asking me to do it for you,” Thom said.“Go get your materials and a notebook and come back with an idea of what you're trying to write, research, or understand, and we have a starting point.If you're not back within the hour, I’ll know you don't actually want help.”
He waved Randy off as he entered the train depot.The moment he stepped through the door, he wished he'd gone home or treated himself to a matinee at the local theater.Pearlie Mae had questions about the woman he was supposed to meet.
Thom wasn't sure how she even knew about it.However, a smell reached his nose that was most foul and reeked of human waste.He turned to see where the smell was emanating, only to have Pearlie Mae explain that an itinerant man had made an absolute mess in the men's room, then ran into the ladies' room, scaring the travelers, and made a mess in there as well.The custodian was cussing a blue streak, all the while threatening to quit.Thom checked the board to discover the afternoon train was late, and to top it all off, in his office under his desk was a porcupine.
“Petr Qwill, why is your spiky, smelly ass in my office?Jiminy!Jiminy!Get your damned porcupine from under my desk!”
Jiminy Whitfield, the night manager, had come in early to cover for Thom’s afternoon off.He was an odd man with relationship issues which he fobbed off onto a porcupine he’d found injured on the side of the road.Faced with the loneliness of losing his wife, Jiminy had opted to care for the animal, raising it to its new size, which was large, along with his teeth.
