Adam And Eve On A Raft

Annie had seen the flyers posted all around the town. She finally took notice of one while on her walk to campus. It was stapled to a telephone pole. 

“LONELY PEOPLE NEEDED. COMPANIONSHIP WANTED. NOTHING MORE, NOTHING LESS. GENDER & AGE DON’T MATTER. MEET @ DELILAH’S DINER 4PM”

It seemed innocent enough, she’s a lonely person and it felt good to be needed. The only problem was that she had no idea who had posted the ad. She didn’t know how old they were, what they looked like, or what they identified as. 

Now she’s sitting in her car in the small parking lot of Delilah’s at 4:03 p.m., hesitating, thinking of all the possible scenarios that could happen if she goes inside. She could meet a serial killer who preys on young lonely women. Or maybe a young, hot, tattooed guy who loves reading and rides a motorcycle. Either way she’s screwed.

But she’s tired of her life. It’s too predictable, too boring. Nobody would write a book or make a movie about her. So, here she is. Being unpredictable.

She finally gets out of her car. It’s been raining for a week and today is the first day the sun is shining. The air is so humid Annie feels like she’s choking on it. It smells like a mixture of rain, sweat, grease, and chemicals from the local oil refinery. Annie tries to look through the windows of the diner to see if she can guess who the person is, but the sun is reflecting off the glass obscuring the view and mirroring her own image back to her.

She looks at herself for a moment. She’s standing by her car that was handed down to her from her older brother, who had bought it from an old woman who wasn’t allowed to drive anymore. The back window of the car still had the leftover residue from her brother’s fraternity sticker, which Annie had spent hours slowly peeling off. Despite the paint starting to chip in some places the car was still in decent shape, except for the left speaker being broken and defroster not working.

Annie convinces herself to just go for it and enter the diner. As she gets to the door a teenage couple walks out while holding hands and the girl holds the door open long enough for Annie to walk in. As soon as she steps through, the overpowering scent of bacon hits her nose. Music is playing at a low volume and the song is one that she vaguely recognizes but doesn’t know the name of. She stops for a moment and looks around at the other patrons. There aren’t many.

There is a middle-aged man in a suit sitting at the bar biting into a burger and Annie watches as a drop of ketchup falls out of it onto the plate. At one of the booths, two women in their fifties are chatting over coffee and pies. One of them is waving her hands excitedly while telling a story and nearly knocks over her coffee. An old man is sitting at a booth, looking at the menu, his head bobbing along to the song. Another woman in her thirties is by herself browsing on her phone. She has a chocolate milkshake with condensation dripping down the glass and onto the table.

A couple of waitresses are behind the bar, one of them is talking through the window into the kitchen. The other is counting money at the cash register. Annie walks up to the waitress and grabs her attention.

“Excuse me, um, I’m supposed to be meeting someone here, but I’m not exactly sure who they are.”

The waitress stops counting the money and looks at Annie with a confused look on her face. 

“Are you meeting a date or somethin’ here?” the waitress asks.

“No, it’s- well there was this ad and… it said to meet here at four. I didn’t know if you knew anything about it.”

The waitress shakes her head and replies, “Sorry sugar. You can sit anywhere you want while you wait for your mystery person to show.”

The waitress goes back to counting the money and Annie awkwardly stands there, unsure of what to do with herself. She looks down the bar at the man in the suit. Annie doesn’t think he’s the one who posted the ad, he seems way too preoccupied with his burger to care about anything else. She turns around to look at her other options.

She’s almost positive that the two women aren’t who she is looking for, they look way too happy to be lonely. That left the woman and the man, both are sitting alone. The woman is still on her phone scrolling. The man glances up as soon as Annie looks at him. He gives her a friendly smile and Annie looks away, embarrassed to be caught staring.

She decides to hedge her bets and go to the woman on her phone. On the way to the table, she begins to pass up the old man, until he calls out to her.

“Are you here cause of the ad?”

Annie abruptly stops and looks at the old man. There’s a moment of silence while Annie tries to decide whether or not she should lie. The old man must be able to see what she’s thinking on her face because he gives her a warm smile and says,

“If you’re not that’s alright. I’m sorry for bothering you.”

He gives her an easy out that would allow her to say no and move on to sit at another table alone. But something in his voice makes Annie feel guilty for considering lying to him. So, she takes the plunge and answers him honestly.

“Yeah.”

Her one word makes the man’s smile grow and deepens the crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes. Annie continues to stand there until he notices and gestures to the seat across from him. She sits down and he gives her his menu.

“Here, I don’t actually need this. I just needed something to look at so I wouldn’t be staring at the door the whole time.” He says as she takes it from him.

“How long have you been waiting for someone to show up?” Annie asks.

 “Three months.” His answer is short and simple.

“You’ve been coming here for three months with no one showing up? What if you just missed them?”

He leans forward and lowers his voice as if he’s telling her a secret.

“I’ve come every day for three months at four, I don’t think I’ve missed anybody.”

Annie is shocked that he’s been so committed to finding someone to talk to. She finds it hard to understand how he could just keep coming back day after day, to just be met with disappointment.

“Why?” she finally asks him.

The old man sits back and rubs a hand across the back of his neck.

“Well, you see, six months ago my wife passed away. After fifty-three years of marriage, I didn’t realize how much I relied on her until she was gone.”

Annie’s brain freezes. She didn’t know what she is supposed to say in response to something like that. She didn’t know if she should offer her condolences or maybe she should act nonchalant about it to spare the man’s emotions. Luckily the waitress from earlier comes by and saves her.

“So, you found your mystery man I see.”

Annie responds with a small and awkward smile.

“What can I get for you hun?” she directs to the old man.

“I’ll just take the usual, Adam and Eve on a raft.”

Annie’s brows crease in confusion. What is that? She didn’t have time to look over the menu and now the waitress is staring at her, waiting. She blows a bubble of pink gum.

“Uh, can I just get a milkshake please?” Annie says.

The waitress deflates the bubble and responds, “What kind? We only have three flavors. Vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.”

“Strawberry.”

The waitress nods and takes the menu from Annie. She watches as the waitress walks away and continues to stare in that general direction until the man coughs lightly, causing Annie’s attention to return to him.

“Anyways, I always knew I relied on her for things like food and laundry and all of that stuff. I didn’t notice how much her company meant to me. The house is so quiet now and I can’t stand it. For about three months after her death I fell into, I guess, what you’d call a depression.”

Annie was just staring at the old man now, trying to imagine what he was feeling. Her first instinct was to look away or cast her eyes down at the table, so she wouldn’t have to look at his face. But she thought that might be rude, so she continued to stare. 

But what if he thinks staring is rude?

Should she look away at least for a little bit? Maybe if she glanced at the two women chatting really quick. Maybe the man won’t notice.

Her thoughts were starting to run away from her, and she realized she wasn’t paying attention to what he was saying now.

“When you get to my age, everyone you know has either died, or moved away. We never had kids, so it was really just the two of us. Now it’s just me.”

“I’m sorry.” Annie blurts out. It was the only thing she could think of to say.

The old man does something unexpected. He smiles at Annie.

“Now what am I supposed to say to that?” he asks her.

Annie’s brows crease in confusion.

“I…Uh… I… don’t know.” She responds.

“I could say, it’s okay.” The old man lets out a small laugh, but Annie is having a hard time finding the joke. “But it’s not really okay, is it? My wife is dead and that still makes me sad.”

Annie nods slowly. She’s not exactly sure what’s going on. She’s starting to feel like she said something wrong. The old man must be able to read her mind or something.

“Don’t worry, you didn’t say anything that upset me. Your reaction is completely normal. We all say ‘I’m sorry’ when we feel sorry for someone.”

Annie is spared from having to reply when the waitress comes up to the table, carrying their food and smacking her gum.

“A strawberry milkshake for the pretty lady.” The waitress sets Annie’s drink down in front of her.

“And here’s Adam and Eve on a raft for you honey.” The waitress sets the order down for the old man.

Annie looks at the plate to see what this fancy sounding dish is. It’s just… two eggs on a piece of toast. That’s not exactly what she was expecting. Maybe she’s overthinking this, but she expected something a little more…more.

“Is there anything else ya need?” the waitress asks them. The old man shakes his head, and the waitress turns her eyes to Annie. Annie also shakes her head, and the waitress begins to walk away.

Annie notices that she wasn’t given a straw with her milkshake. But instead of calling out to the waitress to ask for one, Annie finds herself freezing. She doesn’t want to be a bother anymore. It’s fine, really, she can just try to drink the shake from the glass.

The old man picks up his knife and fork and begins to cut into his toast. Annie watches the yolk burst open and run down onto the plate. She’s never liked runny egg yolk.

The old man’s words of “Are you religious?” brings her eyes up to his face.

“No. Not really.” Annie tells him.

“No, or not really?” he asks her while bring a piece of yolk covered toast to his mouth. Annie thinks she might have seen a small smile on his face.

She thinks for a moment. She doesn’t pray anymore, and she doesn’t go to church either. She doesn’t really think of God most of the time.

“No.” she finally tells him. He nods his head and doesn’t say anything else. Quiet stretches on for a moment. A new song starts playing, something with the words,

Sittin’ in the morning sun

I’ll be sittin’ when the evening comes

“Are you religious?” she finally fills the silent void at the table.

“Yes. I guess.” He tells her. Annie feels herself smile a little.

“Yes, or you guess?”

The old man chuckles and says, “Yes.” Then goes back to eating.

Great, Annie thinks, we have nothing in common. How are we supposed to talk about anything. What am I even doing here?

She looks down at her milkshake and notices that the glass has started sweating. It’s created a ring of water on the table underneath it. She really wants to drink it. It looks like it’s just what she needs to cool off from the heat outside.

“You need a straw.” The old man says, causing Annie to look up.

“Oh, yeah, I noticed. I just wasn’t able to catch the waitress in time.”

The old man looks at her strangely. Annie swallows, waiting for the feeling of judgement in his stare. But it never comes. Instead, he raises his hand and calls out, “Delilah!”.

Annie turns around and sees the waitress look up from her magazine, still chewing that gum. “We need a straw over here!” he yells across the diner. Annie feels her neck heat up and puts her head down. She can feel the stares of everyone in the diner.

Who does that? Who yells across a crowded diner. Well, it’s not that crowded, but still.

The waitress, Delilah apparently, walks over with a straw in her hand. Annie looks up at her, embarrassed. Delilah holds the straw out for Annie to take.

“Sorry about that sweetie.” She says as Annie grabs the straw.

“It’s okay. Thank you.”

Delilah returns to her magazine and the old man continues to stare at Annie as she takes her first sip. The shake is still cold, and it cools Annie off. She can tell they used real strawberries because they weren’t blended all the way. So, Annie can suck up chunks though the straw. Just the way she likes it.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” the old man asks, “About the straw.” He clarifies.

“I guess I didn’t want to be a bother. Be complicated.” She says.

“You’ve gotta ask for things that you want. If you don’t, you’ll go your whole life never getting a straw.”

Annie doesn’t know what to say so she just nods and continues drinking her shake. The old man resumes his eating Adam and Eve.

“So, you know why I posted the ad. Why did you respond to it?” he asks her.

Annie thinks back to the moment of seeing the ad.

“It said lonely people needed. I guess I’m lonely. And I was curious about someone who would put up an ad like that.”

“Do you have any friends that you hang out with?”

“Yeah, I have friends. We hang out.”

“But you still feel lonely?” the old man questions her.

“I guess. I don’t know, doesn’t everyone feel like that at some point? That’s just how I feel.” Annie hears a little agitation creeping into her voice. “And I didn’t know I’d be coming to a therapy session.” She says without thinking.

She instantly regrets being so mean to this man who has been nothing but nice to her. She opens her mouth to apologize but the old man starts laughing. Not just chuckling but laughing, out loud for the whole restaurant to hear.

Annie begins to feel embarrassed. But there’s something about this old man’s laugh that feels infectious. The next thing she knows, Annie is laughing along with him. She’s not even thinking about the other people in the diner.

Annie stayed in the diner with the old man for three more hours. During that time, they talked about everything. His wife, her brother, his childhood, her future. They ordered some pie, which Delilah said was on the house.

When it came time to pay the bill, the old man insisted that he pay for both. Annie kept telling him that she could pay for her own milkshake, but the old man told her that it’s just a generation thing and she decided to let it go.

By the time they walked out, the old man holding the door open for her, it was dark, and Annie could hear the cicadas singing. The old man watched her walk to her car and once she was safely inside, he began to walk away.

Annie didn’t know if he was parked somewhere else behind the building, or if he was walking to the bus stop, or even walking home. Annie thought about offering him a ride, but as she learned over the course of four hours, he wouldn’t have accepted.

She realized then that she didn’t even know his name. If she comes back tomorrow, she can ask him then.

Annie doesn’t know if she’s coming back to the diner tomorrow. Or coming back next week, or next month. Maybe she won’t come back at all. But one thing that Annie knows for sure, is that she’s leaving this diner a changed person.

Maybe not a change that’s noticeable or significant. But changed all the same.