(I know, this did get rather long...)Waiting
(April 1980)
It was dusk, the sun had set, just some orange left over the mountains. Cassie stood outside, shivering, even though it was April, it was cold outside. Cassie was waiting for Ennis, he was already more than an hour late.
Last night was so different. Ennis was over and they were playing a board game. They never did anything like that before. But it was in his truck when he came to pick her up. It was the girl’s game, that they left in the truck. Cassie said “why don’t we bring it upstairs and play?”
So they did, it was a silly game, just right for teenage girls. There were lots of colored dots that you had to put in the right boxes. They actually were having fun. Ennis was even laughing. Cassie had realized last night that she hardly ever saw him laugh in all this time. Cassie shook her head thinking how strange that was. To know a person for a couple of years and almost never see them laugh.
But after they played and Cassie made Ennis dinner, a change had come over him.
Cassie stood outside shivering, looking down the road for the truck. She didn’t know what happened last night that caused him to change. They were still laughing as they sat down to eat, but then during dinner something changed. Ennis sat there, quiet for a while, and then he said “I gotta get going.”
“Are you comin tomorrow, like we said?” Cassie asked him as he was putting on his hat.
He mumbled, but then he looked at her and said “Yeah, around five.” Then he left.
It was now almost seven, the sky was almost completely dark. She kept standing there shivering. Cassie said to herself, “Lord, I wish I knew..…”
Cassie thought about all that she had said to him last night. She had been talking about the restaurant that day. She always told him stories about the people that she waited on. About the lady, who was really fat, who kept calling her over complaining about all of her food. About the kid who spilled milk all over everything and himself too. About the cowboy who came in, and sat all by himself in the back. A cowboy who was real polite, with dark hair, a mustache, and real sky blue eyes. He was so kind to her. He kept saying please and thank you ma'am.
Cassie had been watching him the whole time, there was just something about him, she had thought. The way he sat there. She told Ennis all about him last night, just like she told him about all the people she waited on. She couldn't figure out what made him change like that.
Cassie looked down the empty road once more. It was now half past seven. She stood there shivering in the April cold.
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