Janet
Yarkowski has had a life full of many ups and downs. Diego, the love
of her life, has been in the Navy for many years. She didn't hear
from him for so long, she finally allowed herself to marry another
man. Tex beat her, killing their unborn child. She left him and went
back to her hometown in Nebraska, working hard as a teacher. One day,
Diego showed up. He was with her a few months, then his commanding
officer demanded that he do another job for him. Shortly after Diego
left, Janet found out she was pregnant. Now, it's Christmas time and
she's heading back to Texas to be with her dying mother. On the way,
she stops in a truck stop diner.
Janet
got through the next couple of weeks in a daze. Christmas break was
coming, the students had exams and she could hardly function. As
excited as she was about having Diego's child, she couldn't face the
reality of being alone. She planned to head to her parents' house the
first day of break. She woke that morning and got ready slowly. There
was no joy in her trip. Her mother had been diagnosed with cancer and
had been given less than a year. Janet could only hope that she'd
live long enough to see her first grandchild come into the world.
Her
trip south was uneventful. There were warnings and threats of
blizzards, but she managed to dodge them all. She sat in a truck stop
drinking coffee and eating a piece of pie. The lowering clouds on the
horizon made her think of Tex for the first time in years. She
wondered what he was doing with himself, where he was. Not that it
mattered. The only reason she wanted to see him again was to get him
to sign divorce papers so she could marry Diego.
Overcome
by grief, she propped her head on her hands and let the tears fall.
She was tired, worried about her mother and had the unbalanced
emotions of a pregnant woman. Clutching handfuls of paper napkins,
she wept as silently as she could, shoulders hunched and shaking. Her
sobs and sniffles didn't go unnoticed for long. Her waitress, a
kindly woman about her mother's age, slid into the booth across from
her, handing her a clean cloth towel from the kitchen.
"You
okay, honey?"
Janet
sniffled, dabbing at her eyes. "No. Do you ever feel like life
just plain sucks?"
"All
the time," the woman replied. "Every day when I have to
come to this place." She smiled warmly. "Can I get you
anything? Another slice? A warm up on the coffee?"
"I'll
take a new life to go, please," Janet said, trying to smile.
"I'm sorry. My husband's gone overseas and I just found out I'm
pregnant. I'm on the way to Lubbock to visit my mother. She's really
sick and this may be the last time I see her."
The
woman came over to sit by her, putting Janet's head on her shoulder.
"You go ahead and cry it out, honey. You got to get the bad out
before the good can come in." She held Janet and let her cry.
One
of the truckers called to her from his booth. "You gonna come
refill my coffee?"
"You
know where it is, don't you?"
"Yeah...."
"Well,
help yourself. While you're up, see if anyone else needs some. This
girl needs me more than you lazy bastards."
To
Janet's surprise, the man got up and got the coffee. He made the
rounds and topped off his own cup. When she'd calmed down, the woman
handed her the bill. It had "On the House," scrawled across
it. Janet thanked her, leaving a handsome tip. She stopped in the
bathroom. When she came out, the waitress came up with a huge teddy
bear from the gift shop.
"The
boys chipped in and got this for you," she said with a happy
grin. "Don't you worry. It's gonna be okay."
©
2018 Dellani Oakes
No comments:
Post a Comment