Jenna turned away and made no comment.
“Well, I’m in.” Tommy stood and made his way to the middle of the formation. “Come on, girls,” he said to the team, who didn’t respond, “it’s time to get serious and kick some ass!”
Connie, Carla, Diane, and Nancy joined him, each shadowing one of the live women.
“It’s looking a little lopsided there. Should we go join the men?” Marvin asked.
Mike laughed. “Brody, do you have a death wish? The guys are gonna get creamed, big time.”
“We’ll see about that.” Marvin went and stood in the middle of the men’s team.
It was ladies’ serve. A girl tossed the ball into the air and powered it over the net. The return came back fast and hard. Connie slid her arm into the closest player and the ball slammed over the net. “Holy crap, Suzie,” said one of her teammates. “Where the hell did that come from?”
Suzie rubbed at the strange tingling in her arm and laughed. “I don’t know, but I really nailed it, didn’t I?”
The game volleyed back and forth for almost five minutes, and all Marvin managed to do, really, was get in the way. Jenna watched his body get bumped through with elbows and knees, even a couple of head butts, and finally called out, “A lot of help you are. You might as well be on the women’s team.”
“You could help, you know!”
Thinking she might as well enjoy what time she may have left Jenna stood and said, “Okay, you asked for it.” She jumped into the midst of the ladies with a grin on her face, and assisted a return.
“Hey, hey, hey. What is that?” Marvin asked, ducking away from the ball as it whizzed past. “Traitor!”
“Ah, go step in front of a bus,” Jenna taunted him, and laughed for the first time in a week.
Marv winked. “Go fall down a flight of stairs!”
The deadheads roared approval prompting Dennis and Davy to join up with the women.
Mike stepped in to help Marvin. “We are definitely outnumbered, Brody. You do realize we’re going to lose, right?”
“I do,” Marv replied. He leaned in to Mike and whispered, “And as long as it puts a smile back on her face, it’ll be worth it.”
More than a few times during the game, the ball suddenly altered course and fired back over the net to the men’s team. “What? Wait a minute, how is that possible, you weren’t even near the ball. That should’ve gone out of bounds,” one complained.
“It’s a secret weapon, boys,” Tommy responded. “Face it, you guys are done for.”
“Ya’ll are cheatin’,” a man’s southern drawl accused as he ran to retrieve the ball from the water’s edge before the ocean grabbed it.
“Oh, now, honey, don’t be such a spoil-sport,” Davy chastised. “It’s not very attractive, you know, no matter how hunky you look in that bathing suit. Especially from a kindly southern gentleman like yourself,” he added in his best Alabama dialect.
The game had gotten so competitive, a crowd of passengers gathered to watch the fun, and the sideline cheering sections chose sides. The skipper stood at the net and waved his hat through the air. “Twenty all. There’s a round of drinks and a platter full of shrimp for the winning team when we get back on board.”
“For the match point,” declared Suzie, poised to serve.
Even as her cohorts cheered her on, a man waved his teammates closer to the net. “Move up for the lob, that’s all she’s got in her. We’ll take possession and go for the win."
“You know, I don’t think I like his attitude,” Diane said, sliding fully into the woman’s body. She added a power to the serve that sent the ball flying low across the net, right between two of the men. They both lunged at it and missed. The force of it slammed right through Marvin’s midsection and ditched into the sand with a thud.
Marvin wrapped his arms around his stomach. “Holy mother of Mary!”
A loud cheer rose from the female contingent with high-fives and hugs as they made their way to the canopied tables.
“God, I am suddenly famished,” Jenna said, hugging Marvin.
“Well, then, let’s go get you something to eat. And snag a couple of beers while we’re at it, how’s that sound?”
“Like heaven.” Jenna slipped her hand into his and they made their way to the tables.
The rest of the group followed, helped themselves to platefuls of food and sat on the sand slightly removed from the living. Tommy put his plate down behind a rock and walked over to the coolers. “Anyone else need something to drink?”
He took orders, reached in and tossed them over one by one. The minute a can left his grasp it winked into the sight of the living. As it was caught, it disappeared. Tommy watched a group of fellow passengers until he saw one glancing his way and lobbed the last can across the distance.
A scream let loose and a woman jumped and ran. “Oh, my God, did you see that? Did you see that?”
Tommy placed a hand to his mouth with a sly grin. “Oops.”
Another one jumped up, her eyes darting around. “What’s wrong, what happened?”
“Over there, a can of something just, just …”
By the time everyone’s attention went from gawking at the frightened woman to the place she pointed with a shaking hand, there was nothing left to see.
“Randi, sweetie,” a man said, sidling up to her. “I think you’ve had a little too much sun.”
“Or rum,” someone suggested and loud laughter rolled out to sea.
-25-
While the crew broke down and packed up for the final leg of the cruise, the deadheads moved to the west side of the spit of land, along with all the paying passengers, to take in the performance of the sunset. The tips of waves sparkled in the final rays that broke through wisps of pink-hued clouds and trade winds rustled hair.
Nancy found herself in a quandary again. She wanted to broach her idea with Jenna, yet she didn’t want to kill the buzz the group displayed. If she tried now, here on the island, it gave Jenna too many places to run to avoid the discussion. The confines of the ship might offer fewer spots to hide, but the outcome could still be the same. Yet, she was running out of time.
“It’s so beautiful here. Why can’t we just stay forever, Marv?” Jenna asked, leaning her head on his shoulder.
“It would be nice, wouldn’t it?”
Jenna bit down on her lower lip. “It would keep me from having to face Jason. I’m scared, Marvin. I keep wondering what’s going to happen, what will he do?” Before he could respond, Jenna let out a soft sigh. “I’m sorry, Marv. I really screwed up, and I’m sorry.”
Marvin placed a hand over hers. “It’ll be okay, kiddo. You’ll see,”
Scooting a few feet across the sand, Nancy put herself directly in Jenna’s sightlines. “I can’t tell you what his decision will be, but I can tell you this much. I’ll be there, and I’m going to be in your corner.”
“I know you believe me, but —”
“No, I don’t just believe you, I believe in you. I’ll fight for you. I’ll fight with all I’ve got. And everyone else here agrees with me, and wants to help.” She waved her hands along the line of deadheads.
They fell silent as the sun’s flash dipped below the horizon, and moments later the blast of a horn signaled the crew was ready to ferry passengers back to the ship.
Tommy stood. “We better go if we don’t want to be swimming to catch up like we did last year. That was a hoot, but I think we’ve had enough fun at their expense,” he said, nodding at the retreating group.
Everyone but Jenna and Marvin rose and headed back to the beach. Nancy stopped several yards away, turned to them, and waited. Though she could’ve commanded her to obey, preferring to keep it calm and friendly, Nancy called out in an even tone, “You coming?”
Marvin rose and held out a hand for Jenna to grasp. She took it and stood with a desultory expression, and walked beside him with listless movements. When they reached her, Nancy spread her arms and embraced Jenna in a comforting
hug. “We’re all here to help. You have to trust in that.”
“What can they do? What can anyone do?”
Nancy pushed Jenna to arms length and met her gaze. “As odd as this seems, I think what you were trying to do is good. While I can’t make any promises, I’ve got a plan.”
-26-
After an hour or so of instruction from Nancy, Marvin and the guys sat huddled at the bow of the ship during the entire final leg of the cruise and avoided the living as much as possible. Jenna and the girls disappeared for short bursts of time. Every so often one of them would return to the group, staggering and appearing light-headed, as if they’d downed too many shots of rum at the open bar. Tommy’s brow furled in concern. When one rejoined the group bearing a smirk of satisfaction, the corners of his lips would turn up.
Everyone stayed quiet on the flight back to Dayton and for most of the ride to the hotel, as if lost in their own worlds.
When the bus ran past Epstein’s, Tommy hollered out to the group. “Is anyone else as hungry as I am? Let’s hit the Deli. My treat.”
Marvin laughed. “Your treat. You’re mighty generous when it’s not costing you a thing.”
“Dude, it’s a figurative treat, right? Besides, are you gonna pass up a free corned beef and pastrami sandwich?”
“Not on your life!” Marvin grabbed Jenna’s hand, and they leapt from the bus to the sidewalk.
Davy turned to Diane, who sat in the seat across the aisle. “I guess we’re going to sample the fare sooner than we thought.” He pulled Dennis, seated beside him, to his feet and pointed to the side of the bus. “Come on, rumor has it Tommy’s the best cook this side of a tombstone.”
“Wait.” Diane grabbed at the back of Davy’s shirt to try to stop him. “I do not jump from a moving vehicle.” She tugged on the cord to signal the driver to stop. He glanced up at the rearview mirror, but the bus never slowed. Diane pulled and didn’t let go until the bus came to a halt. The driver yanked the emergency brake, and stomped his way toward the back to see what had snagged the line. He’d gotten more than halfway along the length of the vehicle when she released it, walked through him to the front and out the doors.
A cold shiver ran down his body as he threw his hands in the air. “It figures. These old rattletraps should’ve been retired long ago. Who pays the price? Me.” His mumbling continued while the rest of the deadheads stepped through the side of the bus chuckling and he made his way back to the driver’s seat.
After gathering on the sidewalk, they followed Tommy the block-and-a-half to the restaurant where they melded through the wall in a swarm. The place was empty, unless you counted the handful of deadheads. Colleen and Patrick were still lingering over coffee and a kugel, and rose to greet them. Through all the hubbub of introductions, Tina-I’ll-Be-Your-Server-Today stood oblivious at the wait station filling salt and pepper shakers.
Once the vacationers had responded to all the usual post-travel questions, Tommy said, “We’re a little early. We might have to wait until Moe and Tina clear out before I fire things up again.”
“Wow, where is everyone? Is the place usually this empty?” Dennis asked.
“That’ll be the day,” Marvin retorted, moving into his typical booth next to the window. “Most days it’s tough to find a place to sit and if you’re not careful you could end up with someone in your lap. But it’s near closing. The usual customers have already left for the temple.”
“Grab a seat everyone. I’ll go see what the timetable is.” Tommy motioned for Mike to follow, went behind the counter and whispered something to him. Mike disappeared through the back where he found Moe in the kitchen hovering over a sink of hot water, scrubbing his spatula.
Davy stood next to the drink fountain, an empty glass in his hand. “Hey, Marvin, is it okay if I help myself to a soda?”
“I don’t see why not.”
Davy shoved his hand through the top of the ice bin. Then he pushed the glass against the tab for his drink. The machine swooshed as the mixture flowed into the glass.
Tina’s eyes darted toward the sound. Soda poured from the machine but disappeared as if evaporating in mid air. The huge canister of pepper almost slipped from her grasp. A second later, with grit teeth, she swept her gaze across the empty tables. “All right. Fine. Here,” she said with false gaiety, “let me start a fresh pot of coffee for you, too. How about that?” She stomped over to the brewer, slamming things as she went, and yelled toward the back, “Moe, I swear he’s here again.”
Moe, whose hearing was excellent even at what some would call his advanced age, ambled out and cocked an ear. He heard Colleen take a sip at her coffee and ice rattle along the inside of Davy’s glass as he shook a few pieces of ice into his mouth after draining the soda. “More than just him, I’d say,” he told her, and strolled into the back again.
Tina walked behind the counter, and angrily twisted knobs as she moved from appliance to appliance. “You want me to turn the grill and fryer back on for you, too, Tommy?”
The deadheads had been chuckling at her antics, but mouths dropped in awe when she uttered his name. “Uh-oh, I think she’s on to you,” Dixon, one of the regulars, called out.
Tommy collided through her as she went to gather her purse from the office. “I thought something was up. I think Moe’s been aware of me for years. He must’ve told her because she hasn’t been her jittery self the last couple weeks. Well, there goes that fun, dudes.”
“The place is all yours.” Tina marched through the diner, stopped with the door pushed open, slung her purse over her shoulder, and turned around. “But, let me tell you something,” she said, shaking a finger at no one. “This place better sparkle when I get back on Monday morning!”
“Ooo, watch out, she might come after you with a cleaver,” Dixon snickered as the door swung closed and Tommy started to take orders.
“My, we can get rattled by the mysteries of life, can’t we?” Colleen asked. “Why, you should’ve heard the maid this last week.”
Sitting down across the table from her, Jenna asked, “Did something happen?”
“Well, dear, now I know I’ve said ‘things are just things,’ but this was my tea service. She’d taken my tea service,” Colleen replied in a tone that wasn’t like her at all. “This was on this Sunday past. I did my best to avoid the woman, but when she started up with that vacuum I simply had to leave, it jangled my nerves so.”
“I can attest to that,” Patrick interjected.
“When I returned, I went to make a nice soothing cup of tea and everything was gone. Can you imagine? We searched every cupboard in the place, didn’t we Patrick?”
“We did,” he agreed, and took a sip of his coffee.
“Did you find it? Did you get it back?”
“We did. Patrick found it in the room behind the registration desk. There it was, on a shelf, “dibbs” and the woman’s name printed on a piece of paper taped to it,” Colleen huffed out, and pursed her lips. “But, then on Thursday, we were sitting at the table with our tea, watching the afternoon news, and in she comes as pretty as you please.”
By this time, everyone in the diner was held in rapt attention. “Oh, no,” Connie uttered from the adjacent table. “What did she say?”
“She gave no heed whatsoever to the TV, stalked to the table and picked up the tray — tea pot, sugar and cream bowls, and all — and started to walk out. Thank goodness Patrick was on his toes because I was too flabbergasted for words. And, mind you, I don’t rattle easily, do I dear?” she asked her husband.
“That you don’t.”
“What did you do, follow her down and take it back?” Dixon asked.
“Did better than that,” Patrick gloated. “I snatched it right out of her hands.”
Jenna gasped. “Oh, you didn’t.”
“I did.”
The room broke into a round of applause. Diane raised her glass in salute. “Good for you. There’s no reason to have to take that kind of crap f
rom them, not after a lifetime of it.”
“What did she do when it disappeared right out of her grasp?”
“She broke loose with a scream like you’ve never heard, and a string of words that would give a sailor cauliflower ears.”
Patrick stood and took a bow through a second round of applause accompanied by hoots and whistles.
“Plates up,” Tommy yelled from the grill, and began placing orders on the counter.
Mike reappeared from the back reaches of the restaurant and dropped a large rectangular box next to the cash register. He picked up two plates. “Burger and slaw; pastrami on Kaiser with potato salad?”
“Over here,” came a response, and Mike dropped the plates in front of them.
“Come on, Brody, don’t just sit there,” he scolded, heading back to the counter. “Okay, I got two corned beef on rye with knish.”
“Here, those are ours.” Marvin took the plates, dropped them on the table of their booth and returned to help. “You’re on your own for drinks this time,” he called out to the room.
Between Marvin, Jenna, Mike, and Dennis, the food got served and the place became deadly quiet for the next fifteen minutes as food disappeared, even from their ghostly vision. Table by table, conversations started again as they leaned back in their chairs to offer compliments to their host and chef. Drinks were refreshed. If any living soul had passed by and bothered to glance through the window, it would’ve looked like some emergency had caused the diner to be suddenly abandoned — dishes, cups and glasses, rumpled napkins and haphazardly scattered silverware littered the tables; chairs sat at odd angles and distances from tables as the deadheads enjoyed their evening of social reverie.
All talk ceased when Moe appeared from the back, a bag in one hand, and peered around the small dining room, his hand hovered to turn off the lights. Instead he went to the front door, turned in, and said, “Make sure you clean the place really good. I got a gut feeling there’s an inspection coming up.” Then he lifted the bag. “Oh, thanks for the sandwich, Tommy. Tina couldn’t fry an egg without burning it, so I figure it had to be you.” He left, locking the door behind him.
[Jenna's] Gang of Deadheads Page 13