A Crow Flies Straight

Chapter Two

CHAPTER TWO

            It was almost a month later before Andrea saw Happy walk into the diner again. Andrea was having a later shift now, getting off an hour later or so than last time, but she started an hour later so it gave her more time for the day. She was lucky that the diner was open all night or else she didn’t know if she would have been awake the rest of the way home.

            This time, she was just finishing the word puzzle, drinking her coffee when she heard the motorcycle come up. Andrea gave the table a bit of a weird look and looked up at Tiffany, this week’s waitress as she was cleaning the tables. Tiffany looked up when she saw the man stop in a parking spot and get off the bike.

            Andrea didn’t look up when the door opened, thinking that it would be rude. She also felt in the back of her mind that she knew who the biker was anyway. When she saw in the corner of her eye the solidly built man, she knew that she was right. She wondered if he came in again at a different time than when she would stay here, but according to the waitresses, he hadn’t shown his face again until now.

            In the corner of her eye, she saw him sit a little bit closer to her than the last time, but he didn’t try and look at her purposely. She heard Tiffany walk up to him and ask, “what can I get you?”

            “Black coffee. Do you have any pie left?” he asked, his voice just as low and gravel-like as the last time Andrea heard it.

            “We only have apple left today.” Tiffany answered him.

            He nodded and I heard Tiffany go off to get what he wanted. Andrea took a drink of her coffee, staring at what she had left to answer. She had five left to go and she was stumped, looking over them over and over again to try and figure out the words. There were always those last bunch that took her a bit to answer.

            Andrea sat in silence and so did the other man, but it made me jump when his voice cut through the silence, “you seem to be lost in thought.”

            Andrea turned up to look at him before she answered, laughing a bit from her fear, “Yeah. Five more to get, then I can head home.”

            He nodded and moved his head to look more at the sheet that she had in front of her. She raised her eyebrows and she pushed it a bit towards him, inviting him to come over. He seemed a bit surprised by her actions and Andrea forced herself not to smile. She didn’t know she could make someone like him surprised.

            The man came over and he sat down on the opposite end of the table Andrea was at. She looked back down at the paper and she asked him, “I’m trying to figure out number three vertical. A place in heart of sadness, the waves of rushing time and renounced and renew fictional time. Five letters.”

            Andrea saw him look down at the paper, reading it for himself. Both of them were quiet, trying to figure out the riddle. The man asked, “what letters do we have already?”

            “Second letter is an A.” Andrea answered.

            He asked, “water? You cry and they say that water is like a rebirth.”

            Andrea nodded and wrote it down, “it seems to fit at least.”

The man nodded and Andrea saw Tiffany come back out with the coffee and pie for him. She set it in front of him and he gave her a nod of thanks before he took a drink of the coffee. Andrea looked down at the next one that she was having trouble with. He looked at it as well after setting the steaming mug down. He told her, “the next one is book. A printed way of life in the way of telling a story.”