Sunday, September 16, 2007

Call Me Kitty VIII - The Lunch Bunch

It's been a while, so crack open a cold one and please enjoy the eighth installment of the Call Me Kitty series... Dave misses you all.

He was a regular at the corner tavern most evenings, but was a stranger to the place in the day.
Normal greetings thrown his way upon entering after dusk were unfamiliar to the staff on call before nightfall. They treated his entrance with no less indifference shown to any other customer that happened to have stumbled into their joint for a beer or a home cooked meal.
Other evening regulars might have made such an oversight obvious to the oblivious staff, but they too were replaced by stand-ins unknown to our time traveler.
This initial wave of twilight zone locale made him feel as if he had walked into his own home and found another's family. No doubt a comfortable environment, but with very unsettling circumstances.
Although still mindful, he was able to settle into an open stool, respecting the space between his chosen seat and those of the midday squatters. His territory was only marked during darkness, the daylight strangely screaming through the windows masking evidence of any nocturnal claims. So far masked that there was also a mild fear of encroaching upon his apparent daytime counterparts.
The kitchen was showered with light, showing the steel industrial appliances normally cloaked in the dark backroom. Not only visible, but busy producing baskets of custom sandwiches after being efficiently fed the ingredients by people he never knew were on the payroll.
He ordered that day, but his inexperience with the lunchtime menu and protocol still didn't endear him to the barmaids of the light. And still he ate, almost hurriedly, but in a manner not to draw undue attention to himself. The food, memorable, but perhaps even more so if it had been given the time to be properly savored.
The tab, settled quickly and with a generous tip intended to help excuse the intrusion that afternoon.
Out to the parking lot, the sun spewing a shot of solar flares at his unexpecting face and forcing his eyes to angrily adjust to ultraviolet noise that deafened his pupils. He pulled inconspicuously away, vowing to return only in his well-earned and properly appointed time slot. The moonlit landscape a more comfortable one, so comfortable, that there was no sense in risking any more changes of scenery.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I missed you too Dave, but when did you get all highbrow? I want the old Dave.

That was like a book that your English teacher raves about, while you're a little ashamed to prefer a mass market paperbound murder mystery.

A change of writing style to correspond with the change of time Dave visits the tavern. Deep. And the last half sentence makes me think that we will see a return to the old style in later Call Me Kitty's. Or I'm reading waaaaaay too much into this ;)

Anonymous said...

It's about time Davey boy came back..... even if it was at an unexpected time.

Hopefully we won't have to wait so long for CMK IX

Anonymous said...

"Lunch Bunch", gotta love it.

Thanks Sid! Keep on Rockin' and Bloggin'.

Anonymous said...

And still he ate,
That phrase seems odd and interesting used there.

The moonlit landscape a more comfortable one, so comfortable, that there was no sense in risking any more changes of scenery.

As usual, a CMK leaves me with more questions than Dave offers up answers for.

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

How'd I miss this....?