Windows of the Soul

We entered the restaurant and I looked around. It was very formal, and a fountain sat on the left. I rocked on my pumps but stopped myself, thinking I looked childish. I waited for Jace by the fountain while he gave the hostess our names. The water cascaded down the side of the wall to a tank on the bottom. I was tempted to touch it but didn’t. Who knew how many people put their fingers on the slimy wall. Instead I looked at the ripples of water and the rocks that sat below it.

I felt a hand on my lower back and found Jace staring at the fountain as well. “They’re ready.” He said. I let him lead me behind the hostess to a hibachi table. Although there were nine seats, we were the only ones sitting. I sat on the end and Jace sat next to me. I could feel a little bit of heat from the grill warm my face. The hostess left and I opened the menu.

“What are you getting?” Jace asked me. I flipped through the menu, looking for the price of what I normally get. Not bad. Not good either, though. I didn’t want to be rude and get something extremely expensive. To find out how much his dinner was, I asked him, “What are you getting?”

Jace leaned his head sideways to look at me and raised an eyebrow. “I asked you first.”

“And I’m asking you now.”

Jace sighed and said, “Hibachi steak and shrimp.” Good. That was priced lower than the hibachi shrimp.

I looked up from my menu when I heard the other chairs at the grill moving. A family was sitting down, and it wasn’t a small table. They easily took up the other seven chairs. Two grandparents, two parents, and three small children cluttered around the grill. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jace look up and widen his eyes. The youngest of the kids, around two or three, started to cry obnoxiously when her older brother took the seat she was planning on sitting at. The mother yelled at her, and the room filled with the sounds of children crying and parents yelling. I felt Jace lean over and whisper in my ear, ‘Well, this is absolutely horrible.”

I covered my grin with my hand and put the menu over my mouth. The Japanese waitress came and took our orders; the family still needed time to figure out what they wanted. The grandfather seemed to be deaf; everything that was said to him needed to be repeated at least twice, and loudly. One of the kids was leaning over to his father and accidentally laid his hand on the hot grill. Now two kids were crying. The mother scooped up the burnt son and took him to the bathroom. I could see Jace beginning to get frustrated, so I turned to him and put my hand on his arm.

“It’s fine, seriously.” Whatever was in Jace’s eyes vanished, and he nodded at me. Soon the chef came out, made sure he had everyone’s orders correct, and started to cook. While he chopped up the vegetables Jace turned toward me, his back to the family, and we started to talk.

“So where are you from?” I asked him, leaning on my elbow on the table.

“Massachusetts.” He replied. “Now I get to ask you a question. Have you lived here your whole life?”

“For the most part. When I was little I lived in New Hampshire, but we moved here when my father left. My turn.” I drummed my fingers on my chin, debating which question to ask him next. “How old are you?”

“Eighteen. You?”

“Sixteen. When’s your birthday?”

“April 29th. Yours?”

“August 19th. What do you like to do?”

“Listen to my iPod, write.” Jace shrugged. “Dance.”

I sputtered out laughing, forgetting I was just meeting him. “You like to dance?”

Jace feigned being offended and said, “Is that such a bad thing?”

“No. It’s just, most people our age don’t like to dance.” I shrugged and remembered all the times Penny and I would dance around in my room with our hairbrushes in our hands, singing along to our favorite songs at the moment.

“You’ll find out, I’m not most people.” Jace leaning in closer, and I could feel his breath on my lips. Suddenly he pulled back, and our shrimp was put on our plate. I nodded my thanks at the chef and pulled my plate to me. I didn’t even realize the rice and vegetables were on my plate until Jace and I had stopped talking.

I put the shrimp sauce over my shrimp and rice and dug in. Before I took a huge bite I knocked some of it off and took a small, girly bite. I didn’t want to seem like a pig in front of Jace. Not that I was. The Japanese food exploded in my mouth, and I sighed in contentment. I loved Japanese food so much.

“What about you, what do you like to do?” Jace asked me between bites.

I thought a moment and replied, “Drawing, writing, riding horses, reading, listening to music.” Jace nodded and we ate. The family’s loud voices filled my ears; I didn’t realize I had easily tuned them out while Jace and I spoke. We finished our food in silence, but it wasn’t awkward. Most first dates are, especially while you’re eating, but we ate in comfortable silence. This date couldn’t go any better.