The Falls (507 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 2 on 6 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Grownasskid (View user info) at 2006-05-14 12:23:13 EDT
As I sat in the vinyl covered booth staring down at my Dagwood Breakfast Slam and my undercooked hash browns, I had to stop and ask myself how it ever came to this. I took a sip of my cherry coke as a baby screamed next to us; the sound pierced the deepest reaches of my mind and intensified what was already a headache of monumental proportions. I looked across the table at Evan; he was looking at the check the way people look into toilets in public bathrooms. Dimitiros was sitting next to me looking into his empty wallet; it was as if he expected moths to fly out to drive the point home that we were screwed. Evan gave me the check and I got a look at the damage. A Dagwood Slam, a BLT, two eggs over easy with hash browns and toast, and three cherry cokes came to $54.81 after tax. We had $ 41.26 and a wooden snake we won at an arcade last night.
My mind raced as I tried to figure out where all of our money went. Was it at the toll booths? Couldn't have been, that was only a few dollars. Was it paying for the hotel? No, I reserved a room for one person and just snuck my friends up with me, and that was only about $60. Could it have been the casino? No; only Dimitrios lost any money, Evan and I stayed on the slots and came out ahead. Dimitrios was on a streak in blackjack, but stayed just a little too long. Then the answer hit me like so many shots of vodka; it was the drinking.
Dimitrios, Evan, and I had spent the night in Niagara Falls, Canada. We each had our reasons for being there; Evan needed a vacation, Dimitiros was trying to win big in the casino, I needed an excuse to drink. Without going into too much detail, we each got what we were looking for out of the trip. But now, the morning after, all we had to show for our night at the falls was $41.26 in Canadian money, a wooden snake Evan won at an arcade after some inebriated skee-ball, and the kind of headache only Zeus could understand. Any money not spent on blackjack or a skee-ball machine was poured down our throats; we probably imbibed enough to kill and preserve a large animal. We drank with a kind of desperate energy and blind forceful desire to enjoy ourselves that only the truly debased can ever really understand.
But nothing about last night matters now because here we are now, in the same clothes we wore last night and slept in, sitting at Denny's across from our hotel at 9:30 in the morning in the middle of the most tacky and tourist infested part of Canada, and we were $13.55 short of being able to pay the bill.
We began to think of a solution to our problem. Dimitrios suggested going back to the casino and turning our $40 dollars into enough to pay for breakfast. I can't say for sure, but the idea of turning 13 cents into a dollar seemed to really appeal to Dimitrios. If I wanted to speculate, I would think that the idea of sitting in a casino and making something out of nothing would look romantic to Dimitrios. His parents emigrated from Greece when he was still a gleam in his father's eye, and ever since Dimitrios was born he had to work harder than any child in the modern age should ever have to. If I had to speculate, I would think that a life of pay not equaling work would lead a man like Dimitrios to the blind, stupid hope that casinos can provide people. The American dream.
Evan said we should bite off one of our fingernails and put in it Dimitrios's eggs; try to convince the waitress to take it off the bill, or even give us the meal for free. As he suggested this option of deception, the excitement in his eyes was almost childish. Evan, the man with a wife and three kids. Evan, the one with a minivan and a mortgage. Evan, the one who came to get me out of the drunk tank when my owe father wouldn't. Evan, the one with all the catholic morals and family values, looked so excited to be lying, to be breaking a rule that he almost looked aroused. He needed to do this, if for no other reason that he never had before. For once, he needed to be a badass, even if it made him a hypocrite to his children and to his Christ like standard of living. He needed to rebel, even if it was only once in a Denny's across the border. He said all this to me without speaking a word; he said it all with a look and a smile.
Dimitrios and Evan both looked at me; their eyes demanding a plan of action, an answer. They both looked at me; in this one moment, their entire lives were being summed up and explained to me. This shitty restaurant in a shitty part of a beautiful country, with underdone potatoes and flat soda would serve as a microcosm for their lives up to this point and after. I made my decision.
We left our money on the table and left. We left it all on the table, even though we knew it was not enough. Sometimes, that's all you can do.
User Reviews
Submitted by ruthless (user info) at 2006-05-16 12:40:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This deserves more attention.
Submitted by ripple (user info) at 2006-05-15 08:54:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Stagger_Lee (user info) at 2006-05-15 01:02:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2006-05-14 15:13:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Well-written. I was going to call you on three breakfasts costing
over $54, but fiction is fiction. . .
Submitted by Kale (user info) at 2006-05-14 14:41:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Doodles (user info) at 2006-05-14 13:47:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment