The Hybrid Revenge

Chapter two

THE DINER

The Diner was always filled up from both inside and outside. Outside the Diner, one will often find beggars wandering all over the place, begging from whoever can spare a dime, or if the diner has any leftovers but, the beggars are constantly hoping and waiting patiently, anxiously for anyone who has got a penny or food to spare. While on the left side corner of the Diner there are always a few young afro singers showcasing their talents, doing acrobatic dances that fascinate any passersby to drop them some money, while the young boys showcase their talents relentlessly and many people often stop by to watch this rare performance from this young chaps, as on could hear as they stretch their body to limits with difficult or almost impossible dance moves and a contortionist amazing the crowd, makes much sense that when you watch you can get hungry and decide to go into the diner to eat and watch the display, after all, entertainment is not complete without foods and drink. More reason why the Diner was always full every day. Sometimes the seats inside are barely enough for customers, while many customers are willing to wait for free space to sit while others will just go home with their order. No wonder each time these young boys don't come around the manager goes out of his way to look for them, including offering them meals; since they one way or another help us to be popular and also help us to make more sales " Mikasa Tsukasa right".

I think this might be a clear logical reason why we were always having people trooping in and out of the Diner and that's because the food is good and affordable anyway, and since the Diner stands alone in one of the busiest areas of the city; it very easier to locate and that's is why all sorts of people come to the place, bikers, families, and couples hanging out or fresh lovers on a date, people generally tend to patronize the Diner even if the customers won't find any seat.

Since the place was located in the heart of the city, one will find banks and hospitals, and other offices not far from the area, most people coming back from work could easily just get something and go home with it, avoiding the stress of going back home late in the evening and looking for what to make, what we make at Dinner gives the best home cooking feeling. Although other customers come because of the women taking the orders and serving the food. The culture of the founder has always been preserved, the culture of always having some of the finest women to serve the food makes the food worth it, and that's why Mr. Henry still takes his time to employ beautiful women just like his grandfather.

The founder made his idea clear that people will buy almost anything from a sexy fine woman " once you have a pretty woman on your side know you already have the heart of the people on your side". A mentality that has continued to work for over fifty years, and still works. I often see lots of business people coming to interview Mr. Henry on how he has been able to keep his grandfather's legacy alive all these years. He often says " just follow the dem plan". Busy area of the metropolis from Monday to Sunday the Diner was always open to customers, even though Mr.Henry quickly dashes to church in a hurry and comes rushing back like someone whose wife was about to go into labor or a bank robber running for his dear life, Mr.Henry A.K.A Mr. F. face was always in a hurry, and all the days of the week the crowd was always the same, the Diner was always filled up with people passing through, since the Diner was just in the middle town facing one of the busiest traffic areas of the city, from wherever you are coming from, one could see that the Diner Is just there and it's not hiding but just there seating like a dome decree in the open. During the daytime, it was always less busy, with people at work and all. Between 7 am -10 am, the kind of people that come around are mostly workers who just want to grab something to eat before going to work, maybe coffee or tea, or fries. We may all criticize the manager for a lot of things but we must give it to him that he has been exceptionally good in the way he has kept the standards of the place, his grandfather would be proud, the guy is got some management skills, the Harvard school he went to wasn't for nothing after all, just that the school gave him extra on how to cheat on his wife.

Mrs. Henry no longer borders herself as she was also a handful herself, I heard she is her version of bad too, just like her husband she keeps her affairs too. The couple met in their days at the university and ever since the two got married and relocated back to the city to help with Diner, but she has got her plans. While Mrs. Henry went ahead to create her business school using the influence of the Dinner, I think the family just had it with business.

Henry's grandfather took care of Mr. Henry and made sure he sent him to Harvard school where he got his degree. Shortly after he graduated, a few weeks later the owner of the Diner God rest his soul died from a terminal illness. Mr. Henry ever since has been the one managing the place. Me. Henry may not have the morality of how to behave around women but he sure knows how to take care of the family business. The diner has been there long before we were born yet the taste of their fries and coffee remains the same, it's the only place with that much reputation.

Although the pay is better than in all the places there is no leave of mind. Perhaps I could tolerate being given extra work but one thing I could not tolerate is having a man disrespect me in a certain way that I do not approve of, so I had to leave. dinner; old as it may in the central area of the place located in one of the lowliest poorly areas of the town, the dinner is always filled with all sorts of people, days and night, some days one comes across the best human beings that anyone could ever wish while other days you come across the most terrible jackass of the century. Once they open the door and the bell sounds, what follows is going to be all kinds of craps scrambling on top of one another and upon stepping onto the dinner you could feel their aura that everything is just so wrong about them.

They constantly want to be attended to first and coupled with the boss's constant claim of " I don't want any trouble with nobody" they get attended to first, even if they came last, the boss will one way or another have me attend to scums, just because I refused to allow him to touch me as he does to other girls, once he notices a terrible customer that would cause troubles he would call Tracy to attend to it, such a dumb ass, huge with a wild face, strong arm, scars on the left side of his chick putting on an armless with bare chest " Ewwww". Suddenly steps into the Diner, walking slowly as if he owns the place, with so much confidence, anyone could see the energy that he carries as he walks past to take a seat.

Deep in my mind, I prayed that the manager doesn't call my name, it was as if God went to the restroom when I prayed not to be the one to attend to that guy, my thought didn't even sink when I hear "Tracy....table 5" with a gesture of immediacy, I looked up at the roof as if God doesn't like me. Here I am again going head-to-head with a jackass. Here I am standing with my small notepad and a pencil waiting to take orders from a crazy-looking dude, " hello there, what's your order"?. I asked the man politely like he was some gentleman, the reply I got was not welcoming somehow I have managed to anticipate the response will always be nothing to write home about but, this is my job and I have to attend to him, even though I knew I had to put on a smile because if the manager looks at the camera and notices that you are not smiling you will be in trouble.

Here I am trying to be polite to this guy that I know things will eventually end up bad for, like really bad, I've seen it happen all the time. This is the third dinner I have worked in the past nine months and all of them ended up the same, with me fighting with some jackass. Here I am waiting for the reply from this big guy that spread his entire body on the seat like a hippo, so I repeated myself " what's your order please" just then I decided to see myself like some human looking at an ant " yeah! What's with the smile, your smile is fake I will like it if you be real and stop smiling like that, you look like s**t" I didn't say anything but they always do something, like they always know that red button to touch that always sparks up everything like grabbing, this f*****g cabbage piece of s**t grab my as with his filthy hands.

I punched him in the face and told him " you are the ugliest monkey I ever saw" I further went straight to my manager's office and just when I was about knocking his door he opened it and I asked him a very simple question " did you see that guy grab my ass"? Yes, I did the wrong answer, I punched him in the face as well and his response was " you have fired" my response shocked everyone on that shift " f**k you and your f*****g dinner". I was not going to allow anyone to disrespect another minute, that's it if he is not the one disrespecting girls then it will be his customers. Today all that crap will end "yeah! I'm quiet".

I took the back door and bang the door behind me, once I stepped out I already put the dinner behind me, with my jacket in my flipped over my shoulder with my left hand in my pocket as I walk home quietly, all sorts of thoughts continue to cascade across my mind and the thoughts about my mother and my father, especially in the way my father treated my mother and my mother hated him till he died, she hates him still.

She still goes to his grave once in a while just to pray that wherever he is should not be peaceful. I was exactly 19 and on that day I could remember, it rained, even though the rain didn't stop her from getting a cake and making my favorite meal, we both had fun and talked about my dad and all we both went through in the hands of a drunk, that would constantly come home in the middle of the night, rigs of alcohol yet, as if that wasn't enough he would begin to hit mother like a deranged person.

No one knows what makes him constantly so mad and dangerous, all her body was scarce from his abuse of her, she reported him to the police one time and his uncle got him out, instead, he became worse. I remember one time, mother and I were in the room and he comes in and began to hit us, she wouldn't stop until he fell flat, my mother had carried the flower vase, she had lifted it and wanted to smash it on his head, she looked at me, deep into my eyes in so much pain and anger, I have never seen a mother so angry before, she wanted to hit him, it would make all her dark pains go away perhaps if she had killed him that night, but she rather threw the vase the other way and screamed like a psychiatric patient in desperate need of help.

She stood up from his body and began to weep, there I could immediately feel what she was going through, and even though mother once told me that father wasn't always like that, she said all these began the day she lost a child, my kid brother, father continued to blame the mother for his death, he claimed if she had left the boy at home without taking with her against his will and consent the boy would have still been alive, not long after they left that the only call came in from a strange number telling him that there was an accident involving his wife and child, that he should come to the St. Matthews Hospital.

I remembered that day like it was yesterday, I remember like…. I could almost see everything happening again before my eyes, how mother and father had had a misunderstanding about my kid brother Kaleb, for no reason father didn't want him to go out but he insisted, funny that Kaleb was waving at father as he left holding mother's hands. I also remembered my father's reaction upon dropping the call, the only thing he said was "Tracy stay put, I will be back soon ok" as he grabbed his car keys from the shelf and dashed off.

What left that day was my father but what came back wasn't, it was something entirely different, broken and I knew things will never be the same again no matter what. Father never made it to the scene of the accident when 'Kaleb' gave up the ghost, by the time he arrived at the hospital his boy was completely lifeless with all that there was left of him. While mother was unconscious for 3 days, the third day when she woke up she became mad. She did want to live, she wanted to die, she knew life had taken something irreplaceable from her and her husband. My father will never look at her the same way.

My mother woke up on the third day but when she woke up from that coma she was not normal, at intervals she would say things like one who was losing his mind, she was later referred to the psychiatric section where she stayed for another 3 weeks. While my father took to drinking and took the death of Kaleb on everything, I felt so insignificant in that situation, it was almost as if I was invincible, while the father will sometimes call me and began to speak to me like I was God, I would not know what to say sometimes, I was only 8 years old at that time.

By the time mother returned home father never forgave my mother for the death of Kaleb, they both could get rid of the memories of his death as it hunted them. Father would drink himself to a stupor and would come back home to pour the anger on mother most times he would hit her and watch him wreck the entire place while I stood there by the door and just watch how these two people that I used to know bit by bit watch as their lives was been ripped apart to its bones.

The death of my brother brought the worst upon us all. One day on a Thursday night, I began to hear a disturbing sound of a fight, it was my father again hitting my mother, and later it suddenly stopped then suddenly I saw my father take his truck and left in his can the next morning he was found in the hospital, the cops said he drove his car across the bridge, the father could not breath himself just to find peace from the hunting memories of Kaleb he died a few days later.

" My sweet boy" mother will always call him.