To Say Someone Needed

 

My dear old pal is in town.  He’s driving up from Virginia today.  He’d left Georgia the day before.  And sometime next week, he’ll be on his way to Europe.  I don’t know anyone who has managed such consistent travel during the pandemic as he.  A son in Vancouver another in London, an ex in Beijing and an apartment in Hong Kong and Nairobi, he has a lot of ground to cover. 

 

A Canuck, his parents hail from Galway and so, rather than a big cook job in the house, I’d take him and the all of us out to dinner at Garvin’s.  Chatty, he’s also from Galway and he and my pal would invariably get on well.  I called and there’s no live music any more on Thursday nights.  And we’d need to take a place at 8:00PM.  They could seat us earlier, but you couldn’t eat till then. 

My buddy called and said he’d be late.  I imagined as much and this worked well with the late reservation.   My older one returned home from her day of stocking the shelves at Target and made clear that she wouldn’t be joining for dinner as she was exhausted.  And so we got the place ready and waited for his car to arrive. 

Later that night at the restaurant I was disappointed.  It’s not the first time.  We sat there chatting amicably until fifteen minutes turned to twenty and I went out and accosted the first waitress I could, to say someone needed to take our order please.  The gal we got meant well.  But she was tired and full of complaints and excuses and didn’t take particularly good care of us.  Old Garvin came and sang happy birthday at the next folks table but never stopped by our table.  It wasn’t our night. 

 

 

 

Thursday, 08/12/21