Chapter 19
All hell had broken loose when Tripp walked into the café promptly at five o’clock.
People were lined up at the cash register with take-out boxes in their hands.
Two little boys were in the middle of the floor using a red rose and a yellow one for swords.
A lady with a couple of red rose petals left on the table looked past the two kids and waved.
Willa Rose peeked around him into the room. “What is going on in there?”
“World War III,” Tripp answered. “I see Felix sitting in a back booth, but there’s only a yellow petal on his table. There’s two little boys using what used to be roses as swords to fight each other. They are jumping from booths to tables, and everyone is leaving as fast as they can.”
“You have got to be kidding.” Willa Rose stepped around him and into the café for a better look. “Holy crap on a cracker,” she gasped. “Who do those wild kids belong to?”
“Either Felix or Melissa,” he answered.
One kid ran by and jabbed the rose at him. “Leave or suffer the death of an enemy.”
Tripp was glad that the other little boy wasn’t holding a real sword because he poked him twice in the thigh before he tore out after the first one.
The only people who were still seated in the café were evidently his date, who seemed to be oblivious to the kids, and the guy who had his head down like he was hungover.
“Everyone is checking out except for our two dates,” Willa Rose whispered. “I bet you five dollars that those wild boys belong to my date. A woman wouldn’t let kids act like that in a restaurant.”
“I’ll take your bet and hope you are right.” Tripp pasted on a fake smile and crossed the room to meet Melissa—or was it Melanie? He and Willa Rose had joked around so much that he really couldn’t remember.
The lady slid out of the booth and stuck out her hand. “I’m Melanie and those are my two boys, Forest and Smoke.”
“Tripp Callahan,” he said as he shook her hand and waited for her to sit back down. There went five bucks and the first two sons that Willa Rose could lay claim to, but Tripp would have paid her double to have been right.
“Have a seat,” Melanie said. “You don’t have to be a proper gentleman.
I believe in equal rights and free spirits.
I can see that the people in this place don’t agree with me letting my sons explore their spontaneity, but that’s their problem, not mine.
Now, tell me a little about yourself. I know you like to work in leather.
That is impressive. I do astrological star charts for some of my customers.
I am a Wiccan and have a small store in Gainesville where my coven is located.
I sell crystals, feathers, plants, and herbs, and I believe that we get our energy from nature.
If you are prejudiced against my beliefs, I’ll take my sons and go home.
No use in wasting our time if that’s the case. ”
Bernie should give me a whole year of no blind dates after this, Tripp thought and glanced across the room to where Willa Rose was sitting across from Zachary. She rolled her eyes when she caught him looking.
The last person at the checkout counter paid out, said a few words to Tertia, and hurried outside. Tripp wished he could do the same and checked his watch. Fifty more minutes might have just as well been eternity plus three days.
“Now about you?” Melanie raised her voice above the two kids who were now crawling over the booths and under the tables like the whole place was one big jungle gym.
“I’m your basic boring guy. I work, spend time with my extended family, and read a little when I have time. I’m not much for television, but I do like old movies.”
“There’s never a dull minute at my house.” Melanie pushed back a strand of brown hair.
“I can imagine.” Tripp tried to smile, but it wouldn’t materialize. “Is the boys’ father in the picture?”
Melanie shook her head. “I told you that I’m a free spirit. Each of the boys has a different father, but I have no idea who they are. Therefore, they are mine and mine alone.”
“I see.” Tripp checked his watch again and thought it had stopped because only three minutes had passed.
A familiar grunting noise took his attention across the room.
Pansy had slipped past the last person leaving the café and was on her way across the room toward where Willa Rose was sitting.
The two boys stopped what they were doing and gave out a war cry as they each picked up a knife from one of the vacant tables.
“Kill the pig,” one of them yelled.
“Roast him for supper,” the other screamed.
“Aren’t you going to stop them?” Tripp asked Melanie.
“Why should I? A dirty pig does not belong in a café,” she answered.
Tertia threw her order pad across the room and shouted. “Noah, come out here right now!”
The boys yelled.
Pansy squealed and ran to Willa Rose who grabbed her up and held her tightly against her chest. “You will not touch this pig. She’s a pet.”
One of the boys raised the knife and said, “That’s a wild pig from Africa, and we’re going to mount its head on our wall of fame.”
Tripp grabbed the boy by the arm and took the knife from him. “That pig is my brother’s pet, and you don’t have any business with a knife, anyway.”
Melanie was suddenly at his side. “Don’t you talk to my child that way. I told you that I’m a free spirit, and so are my boys.”
“You can raise your kids however you please, but it would be in their best interest later in their lives to give them a little training in public places.”
Tertia folded her arms over her chest. “And I would ask… No that’s not right. I’m telling you to keep them out of this public place from now on.”
“Come on, boys,” Melanie said. “We’re going home.”
The younger boy threw himself on the floor and began to kick and yell, “I want that pig’s head on my wall!”
“Let’s go home and you can hunt pigs in the backyard. If you catch one, we’ll roast it for supper, I promise,” Melanie said.
Her other son pocketed the knife he had been holding. “We’ll put an apple in its mouth and have popcorn with it, right, Mama?”
“Of course, sweetheart,” she said.
Tripp pointed at the child and said, “That knife…”
Noah touched him on the shoulder. “It’s worth the price of that thing to get them out of here. Come into the kitchen with me and Tertia. I think we all three need a shot of whiskey to calm our nerves.”
“Make mine a double,” Tripp said.
***
Willa Rose carried Pansy over to the booth where Zachary waited and sat down with the pig in her lap. “Poor baby. You have got to stop running away like this. Someday you are going to get hit on the road or stolen by someone like those two hoodlums.”
“Don’t you call my sons names!” Melanie yelled and shook her fist at Willa Rose.
“The fact that they are horrible is your fault for not giving them any direction.”
Before Melanie could say anything else, Tertia gave the woman a gentle shove outside and locked the door behind her. “Thank God that’s over. I hope we don’t lose our customers over it, and I wonder how many places she’s been asked to take those boys and leave.”
“Pansy and I both thank you,” Willa Rose said and turned to Zachary. “Now, where were we before everything happened?”
“I was telling you that…” He snarled like he smelled a rotten egg. “How long are you going to hold that thing?”
“Her name is Pansy, and she really is a pet. The poor baby is still trembling from coming close to getting stabbed, so I’m going to hold her until she feels safe. Then I’m going to take her back to the farm. Maybe this scared her so bad, she will stop running away. Now, you were telling me what?”
He shrugged and set his mouth in a firm line.
“That I’m a banker like my father before me, and my grandfather before him, and that…
” He paused and pushed back his chair. “I can’t do this, Willie Ruth.
I’m sorry, but I just can’t date a woman who thinks nothing is wrong with holding a pig in a restaurant. ”
“It’s Willa Rose,” she corrected him and giggled. “But you are forgiven. I kept calling you Felix, so we are even.” She turned her head and shouted, “Tertia, you can unlock the door. Zachary is leaving.”
Zachary stood up. “I’m sorry, but…”
Willa Rose waved him away with a flick of her wrist. “No ‘buts’ necessary. If you don’t like Pansy, then you won’t like me anyway. Have a safe trip back to wherever you are going, and better luck next time.”
As soon as he was gone and the door was safely locked again, Tripp brought a bottle of whiskey to the table and poured two fingers in an empty coffee cup. “I’ve had a double already, so you’ll have to drink alone, but I figure you need something to calm your nerves.”
Willa Rose threw back the whiskey in one gulp. “Bernie owes us both at least six free months. I’m going to call her first thing when we get out of here.”
“No need,” Tripp said, “She called Tertia to see how things were going, and Tertia is giving her an earful. With all the people that were here, I’m sure the gossip vines are already so hot that they’re melting what snow is left on the ground.”
“Did all that really happen?”
“Ask Pansy.”
“Poor little thing was terrified,” Willa Rose said.
Tripp poured another shot and threw it back like a gambler in an old western saloon. “So was I.”
“I owe you five dollars.”
“Keep it. I’m just glad that the dates are over, but what ended yours so quickly?”
Willa Rose shook her head and sighed. “The third-generation banker didn’t think he could stand to be around a woman who had a pig in her lap. I don’t even need to ask what caused your date with Melissa to fail.”
“Melanie.” Tripp chuckled. “She was a Wiccan. That I could handle. She believed in being a free spirit. I couldn’t fault her for her religion or her beliefs. But, five more minutes with those kids…”
Willa Rose held up a palm. “Say no more. I was just glad they weren’t Felix’s kids, and figured losing five bucks was well worth it.”
“I vote that we take Pansy home. I’ll drive if you’ll hold her,” Tripp said.
“Of course I’ll hold her,” Willa Rose agreed.
“If this keeps happening, we need to get her a harness that we can use in the back seat. I bet she was headed for the Paradise. She would have been so disappointed to find that the carnival left this morning,” Willa Rose said.
“Maybe we should go show her that her boyfriend has gone home.”
“Boyfriend?” Tripp asked.
Willa Rose stood up. “Of course, and now she’ll be heartbroken that the daddy of her babies won’t be around to help with them.”
Tripp chuckled. “I never thought of that being the reason she kept running away the past few days. I can’t wait to tell Brodie and Audrey.”
Tertia rolled a cart out of the kitchen and began to clean off the tables. “Can you believe that?”
“It’s still like a nightmare, but thanks for the whiskey,” Willa Rose answered.
“You are so welcome. We all needed a shot after that. I’m going to buy one of those signs from an online store that says, ‘Wild children will be given espresso and a puppy. You will find both in the pen in the backyard.’”
“I’m not sure a fence with razor wire around the top could hold those boys,” Tripp said.
Noah rolled a second cart out of the kitchen to help Tertia. “What happened here would make a person wonder about having kids. I’ve never seen so many customers ask for take-out boxes and be in such a hurry to get the hell out of Dodge.”
“I don’t blame them one bit,” Willa Rose said. “I shudder to think what might have happened to poor little Pansy if we hadn’t been here.”