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"They won't need us here anymore tonight, and I have things I have to get for the house."
I nodded, made out the check for the boy in the corner and went to his table.
"Do you want anything else?" I asked him. He looked up.
"Yeah. World peace," he said.
"Very funny. I have to go. You can pay this at the cash register," I said and left the check.
"Wait a minute."
"Yes."
"You always have that limp?"
"No. I was in a car accident."
He nodded, as if he had expected that answer.
What a rude person, I thought. Most people wouldn't be so abrupt and direct when it came to someone who had a physical disability
"Were you the driver?"
"Did you sue?"
"No," I said, smirking "The boy driving died."
"Really?"
"Yes really. Do you have enough yet for your news article?" I asked.
"Not yet, butI'll keep working on it."
"Work on your manners, too," I said and left him.
"What were you talking so much about with Duncan Winning?" my aunt asked after I took off my waitress apron and we started out of the cafe.
"He was being nosy, asking one question after another. You know him?"
"Know of him thanks to Mrs. Mallen, who knows all the local gossip and is better than the local newspaper. She says his mother is very involved with her church and pastor." She winked. "Maybe too involved, according to Mrs. Mallen."
"What happened to his father?"
"She says he ran off and left them when Duncan was ten or eleven."
"Does he attend college here?"
"No. He's still in high school. I hear he's a very bright boy, but very strange." She paused and, with a half smile, added, "Be careful, Alice. You don't need any more strange people in your life. We're enough."
I laughed, but when I looked back through the window at Duncan Winning, I saw he was looking after me.
And he was smiling.
12 A New Room
. After I helped Aunt Zipporah get the things she needed for the house, I wanted to help her put things away, but she wouldn't hear of it.
"I can take care of it, Alice. You should rest, get yourself acclimated," she told me. "I rushed you out before to get to the restaurant."
