“Who’re you callin’ old, you old coot.” Floyd Patterson leaned back in the booth, sipping his coffee. He barely touched it all morning, and now? Now, drinking his lukewarm beverage, he looked outside the diner’s filmy window, wondering what had happened to the bacon, eggs, and pancakes he ordered a while ago. “Kath, this coffee is lukewarm. Whatever happened to serving the customer?”

Kathy laughed. “Since when is you a customer, Floyd? Ya know you ain’t paid a single tab of yours since 1983. And it’s, what?” She turned over her wrist, checking the time on a dainty Timex watch. The band, an expandable type, needed a replacement. The hands didn’t move on her tiny watch, so she hung a cheap-looking clock over the cash register. The time wasn’t right on that one either, but time didn’t mean much in the small town. Things moved in slow motion, including service in the diner. “It’s almost lunchtime.” Like Floyd, she glanced outside, watching two beat-up pickup trucks pull up next to Floyd’s old Cadillac. “Ya still wantin’ them pancakes, eggs, and bacon?”

“Now, Kath. Why would I wanna eat pancakes for lunch? You really is lackin’ on your idea of service as of late.” He finished his coffee, waving the cup at Kathy.

“But ya still wanna drink that there coffee, do ya? It’s past noon. You old fool.” Kathy shook her head, walked away from the window, and grabbed the carafe of coffee, not the green-topped one. Heavens no! The red-topped one. She’d made that mistake with the old man about a year ago, giving him decaf instead of regular. She was working two jobs, the diner being her primary employer. Her other two jobs were pretty lax, unlike Janice’s Diner. Kathy had to work hard at the restaurant. Always something to clean or wipe down. Kathy also worked at a factory in the next town over from Hanover, assembling little plastic things. No one ever knew exactly what the pieces were for. And the pieces Kathy put together? They were shipped to Chicago or California, never to be seen again.

The small factory employed thirty or forty people, which was a lot for Hanover, Tweed, and Spiner populations. Hanover had maybe a thousand people. Tweed had grown to almost 3,700. But Spiner had a Walmart, a Dollar General, and four gas stations to support the 17,359 people listed on their township sign. Spiner also had a McDonald’s, a Burger King, and a Taco Bell. So, most people worked and spent their free time in Spiner, which hurt Janice’s revenues. Not that Janice’s Diner needed a lot of money to stay open. Kathy managed the day-to-day operations, closing just after 3 o’clock, which gave her enough time to make it to the factory and put together pieces of nondescript plastic for another four hours. She never worked the weekends, spending time with her cats and knitting. Something about being creative for hours on the weekend was soothing to her.

“If I didn’t want the coffee, Kath, I wouldn’tav asked forin’ it, would I?”