The place had cracked red booths, terrible coffee, and a waitress named Marlene who somehow remembered everyone’s order.
I sat alone near the window.
Marlene poured coffee into my cup.
“You look like somebody stole your dog.”
“Worse.”
“Wife?”
“Already lost one of those.”
She gave me a look.
“Job.”
She stopped pouring.
“Oh.”
I nodded.
“Today?”
“About an hour ago.”
“What happened?”
I told her.
Not everything.
Just enough.
When I finished, Marlene stared at me.
“He fired you because you helped somebody?”
“Pretty much.”
She shook her head.
“Then maybe getting fired was the first good thing that happened to you today.”
I looked at her.
“That’s a strange definition of good.”
“Sometimes people do you a favor by showing you exactly who they are.”
Then she walked away.
I sat with that for a while.
Maybe she was right.
But philosophy didn’t pay tuition.
