On the Other Side of Nowhere

Woody Guthrie crackles on a folk radio station. The coffee percolator drips, drips, drips. Two flies buzz against the window pane. A hot pan is run under cold water, steam gushes up with a vehement hiss. A waitress’ pen scratches on paper. Someone whispers, another someone laughs.

This is one of the quieter moments at Al’s.



Today was a slow day, and slow days at the diner always led to people-watching. In the corner, a trucker held a burger up to his fat, glistening lips. Ketchup dripped onto the speckled laminex tabletop below. He smeared it onto his sausage fingers, licking them clean when he thought no one was looking. Across the room, a little boy was piling the wreckage of sugar packets he’d shredded. His parents didn’t notice; too busy having a hushed argument. Words like ‘divorce’ passed through their lips, words the boy didn’t understand now, but he would someday.

I turned my gaze to the clock on the wall. Bill Haley’s face grinned out of it beside the words ‘Rock Around the Clock!’: an ill-fated attempt to bring a kitsch, nineteen-fifties vibe to Al’s. I watched the hands tick closer to midday. My lunchbreak was coming up soon, not that it would make much difference. I was doing nothing now, and I’d be doing nothing then. Still, I enjoyed having a legitimate excuse to avoid work.

A hand ruffled my hair, forcing me out of my vigil. I blinked and Clancy gave me a goofy grin. That was the good thing about slow days: Clancy would venture out of the kitchen to keep the rest of us company. The only busboy at Al’s, he was tall, wiry and always ready with a joke. Today, he produced a dime from behind my ear. It was an old trick but I enjoyed it just the same.

“For you,” he said, proffering the shiny coin in his palm.

“Are you sure you can afford it?” Shauna teased, coming over to us. Clancy was one of those kind fools; the instant he had any money he gave it all away to friends, loved ones and complete strangers. Too generous for his own good, that was Clancy. Shauna told him once that he’d die poor. His response was that he sure hoped so, ‘cause there's no use being rich if you aren’t alive to enjoy it!

Clancy shrugged and turned to Shauna. “She’s still young.” He talked about me as if I wasn’t even in the room, but placed a hand on my head so I knew he was still acknowledging my existence (he always said I was the perfect height to be an armrest). “It’ll be a few years yet before she starts producing the real moolah.” As if to prove his point, he reached behind Shauna’s ear and out of thin air produced a folded fiver.

Shauna rolled her eyes, grinning ruefully. “I ain’t that old, Clancy. Same age as you, remember?”

“Oh, I’m but a wee lad!” Clancy sung in his terrible impression of an Irish lilt. “Aren’t I, Ava, me lass?” He smiled fondly and pinched my cheek with the hand which had rested on my head.

“Don’t patronise her,” Shauna said, not unkindly. She was as used to Clancy’s ways as I was, probably more so since she'd worked here much longer.

Clancy made a big show of pretending to be offended, but it was obvious his heart wasn’t in it since he was still jabbering on in that terrible accent, all his ‘oo’s drawn out to the point of drunkenness, while his ‘r’s were hard and sharp in contrast. “I’m not patronising anybody! Am I patronising you, Ava?”

It was impossible not to agree with someone so perpetually cheery. Besides, I didn’t mind the brotherly affections of Clancy. Before I worked at Al’s it might have bothered me to be treated like his kid-sister, but now I enjoyed the attention, even craved it. Part of me was beginning to miss the big brother I’d left in Milwaukee. I knew missing him was only the beginning, soon I’d be missing others: parents, friends, next door’s tomcat.

To keep my mind off the home I’d resolved not to call home anymore, I busied myself clearing away the tattered mountain of sugar packets left behind by the little boy. I wondered if he’d remember being here in years to come. Probably not, but I’d try to remember for both of us.

The door opened and clanged shut noisily, cutting through the gentle hum of the diner. I didn’t have to look up to know it was Natalie; she always liked to make an entrance. Under her arm the strawberry-blonde held a picnic basket, no doubt for her and Clancy. “Have you all seen?” she announced without elaboration. Natalie was the sort of person who liked to prove she knew something you didn’t by revealing just enough information to get you curious. Some days, to annoy her, Shauna would deliberately ignore the bait. Today, it was Clancy who took it upon himself to ask.

“Seen what, Sugarcakes?”

“Outside, what’s going on!” she answered, still giving nothing away. “Come on! Come see!”

Since there was no one in the diner aside from the wide trucker who’d moved onto his second burger, we all went out. Even Fernand - the cook - came out of the kitchen to check what all the fuss was about.

“Well, I’ll be the son of a Frenchman!” Fernand exclaimed, as if he was convincing anyone he was anything but the son of a Nebraska wheat farmer. He was always claiming to have French heritage but we all knew he was about as French as a French fry, and his culinary skills reflected that. Fernand was staring down the road, one hand rested on his sweaty belly while the other stroked his handlebar moustache.

Not two football fields’ length away a truck was parked by the roadside. Three men in vests of hysterical orange milled around. One held a tall rod while another seemed to be looking at him through a camera hoisted on a sturdy metal tripod. The third was crouched, scribbling on a clipboard. I wasn’t sure why Natalie insisted we all come outside since we would have been able to see them quite well from the windows in the diner. I guess it was more dramatic this way; Natalie liked being dramatic.

“What’re they doing?” she asked, clinging to Clancy’s arm and sending him doe eyes.

“They’re surveyors,” Shauna answered plainly. Natalie tossed her a quick glare since the question was meant for Clancy. “Someone must be lookin’ to buy the land.”

“Who’d wanna buy land in Nowhere?!” Clancy exclaimed jokily. Natalie laughed airily, Fernand grinned beneath his moustache and even I cracked a hesitant smile. The only one who didn’t share in the joke was Shauna, for once. Her mouth was set in a thin, pensive line, and when we all bundled back inside, tired of watching the three orange figures in the distance, she disappeared out the back to rouse Al from whatever stupor he’d drunk himself into the night before.

“Why’s she bothering Al over nothing?” Natalie hissed once Shauna was out of hearing. The trucker had shot through sometime during our absence, leaving a big enough tip in the jar on the counter. Since the diner was now empty, we all sat in one of the booths, an unofficial gathering.

“I’m sure she knows what she’s doing,” Clancy defended calmly. “Shauna never does anything without good reason.”

Natalie made a huffing noise she thought was cute and decided it was time to take Clancy away so they could picnic privately together. He followed her out the door like a love-struck pup. Fernand returned to the kitchen to experiment with the fryer, and I was left alone, watching the clock once more, this time waiting for my lunchbreak to end.

Shauna re-emerged just as business was starting to pick up again. Collette (as per usual) was late for the afternoon shift, so I was relieved to have the extra help.

“Where’re Clancy and Nat?”

“Picnic,” I explained. Shauna nodded vaguely to show she’d heard. Her brown eyes stared out through the window towards the surveyors. They were beginning to pack their gear into the truck, removing the offensive, fluorescent vests from their backs. I wanted to ask Shauna what had her thinking so hard about them but didn’t know how to phrase it. She didn't need me to ask though.

“Change is gonna come ‘round these parts, Ava.” Her voice was resigned, as if she didn’t like the idea of change, but knew there was nothing she could do to stop it, so why bother trying? I didn’t have anything of substance to add so I let her continue uninterrupted. “Nowhere can’t remain nowhere forever.”

She smiled sadly and went to take another order.