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Written for an RP that wasn’t, I just had some fun playing with the character. I just took some Theater of the Absurd, Existential tones to her personality. Written for the WD topic “meaning of life.”
WD- Writer’s critiquing group some friends and I started. Our book will be out in March-ish. It is a collection of short stories and poems. Look on Amazon then to find the amazingness.
A dim and flickering light caught her eyes from the side of the road. A little diner, a few cars standing in the parking lot beneath the stark lighting. The Water Creek Diner, she read slowly, wondering if it would be any different from any of the other thousand places she had stopped at. Strangely, she wasn't too hopeful.
Jamie pulled the keys from the ignition and listened for a moment to the steady ticking of the engine, wondering if this was a good place. Would it be any different? Of course not. But if she passed it by, she somehow knew, the answer to her searching inquiry would wait for her there for all eternity. Finally, she flung the door open into the darkening air, the harsh beeping of her car reminding her to cut off her lights, which plunged her into even greater darkness.
She made her way to the door, pausing for a moment to glance at the newspaper in the nearby bin. She picked one up, eyes scanning the front page for anything important on a global scale. It was only filled with the typical small-time news, sensational journalism trying to scare people with one threat or another. She sighed, flipping to the back page as she entered the small diner.
“Merry Christmas, doll! What can I do for you?” questioned the matronly waitress after Jamie slid into one of the booths. The woman smiled at her from twinkling blue eyes that were nearly hidden behind deepening wrinkles. Her hair was piled on her head in a crown of dyed gold, but there was a sense of lost beauty. The blue uniform fit carefully to the enlarged form of what had, perhaps, been a slim and trim youth of a bygone age.
“A burger, no pickles or tomatoes, and a coke,” mumbled Jamie, burying herself deeper into the roomy interior of her jacket. She just wanted to eat, sleep, and move on, to get on with life. The meaning of life was hiding out in that great big world somewhere, and she needed to find it.
“Are you sure that’s all? What about some fries? A slice of pie?”
“That’s all,” replied Jamie curtly as she tried to amuse herself by tracing the ancient cracks rippling across the table.
An older couple was seated in the booth across from her, picking at the food in front of them as they conversed in muted tones. At the bar, an older man sat staring straight ahead at the fuzzy representation of a football game. He lifted a half-empty bottle to his lips and took a long drink without ever moving his eyes. It was almost as if someone else had moved while he remained still. There was a teenage girl spinning on one of the bar stools, chewing loudly on her gum as she listened to her headphones and spun a single strand of hair again and again. The only sounds were the measured pops of gum, the football announcers, and some old muted music.
Yes, Jamie somehow knew that this was exactly where the meaning of life was. In these people, wasting away their lives in the most backwater place she had ever visited. It was almost depressing.
The waitress returned, a plaster smile still stapled to her face, and set the plate down in front of the sullen customer. “Enjoy,” she said with a bigger stretch of her lips, then she retreated behind the counter to try and converse with the head-phoned child.
Jamie bit into the burger and was met with the unpleasant taste of pickles and tomatoes atop a hamburger patty. In fact, the waitress had given her the exact opposite of what she ordered. Carefully, Jamie peeled away the unwanted vegetables, if they could really be called that, and continued eating. For some reason, she felt as if this place would simply not make it onto her favorite places list.
The door swung open with a jingle of the tiny bell. A man and woman hurried in against the cold, their arms wrapped around each other. The waitress smiled and greeted them warmly, rushing across the diner to hug them both. “You two look froze to death! Come on in and let me get you some coffee.”
“Thanks Linda, but we can’t stay too long. Are my granma and granpa in here?” asked the man, smiling down at the beaming girl on his arm. Linda pointed to the older couple, who had been watching the short discourse almost detachedly. The couple hustled over to their elders and stopped, rocking back and forth on their feet in excitement.
“Well, Nicky, what is it you got ta say?” questioned the old man, laying aside his fork.
“Molly and I are going to be married. She just said yes.” The diner seemed to erupt with sudden emotion. Linda rushed over to hug and kiss on the new couple, oohing appropriately over the ring. The teenager left her post to come and stand on the outside of the excited group. Even the drunk was willing to take a break in order to join in the festivities.
The place was alive with a purpose. Everyone was speaking as quickly as they could about the wedding plans, flowers, food, gifts. The story of the proposal was told and retold. The new couple giggled and hugged and snuck little kisses when the others were distracted. Jamie sat in her corner and waited to pay.
After waiting a few minutes of being ignored, Jamie set seven dollars on the table and walked out. She needed to turn in for the night if she was ever to have the energy to find meaning. Hearing others talking so passionately about life-as-usual just wasn’t going to help her discover anything.
With a sigh, Jamie walked out, turning her back on the energetic scene, to find what there really was to living.
Gata