Free The Chronicles of Beast and Man by J. Charles Ralston

and took a couple bites of her eggs, only because her mom would insist that she did. Zachary munched down his pancakes, eggs, and bacon so fast that Marcy couldn’t believe it. Zachary would then ask for a second helping of bacon, the kid just couldn’t get enough of it. For some reason Marcy always would forget to make enough to satisfy her little bacon-nator. This upset him a great deal, but he would quickly get over it.
    Once breakfast was over, the kids dressed in their jackets and put on their backpacks. Before heading out the door for school Zachary turned to Marcy.
    “Mom, what does a bee sit on?” The boy randomly asked in an adorable voice.
    “I don’t know.”
    “His bee-hind, bye mom!” With that said he was out the door.
    Marcy smiled, she could only assume that her little man must get his sense of humor from his father. Marcy herself had never been very good at telling jokes.
    With the kids gone she now had a moment to prepare herself for the rest of her day. She did her hair quickly, and put on a little makeup. Then she was out of the house and on her way to the Main Street Café, the only place in town where you could buy a hot breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Of course there was Sheila’s Bar and Grill, but they only served dinner, and it was primarily a bar anyway.
    Marcy enjoyed her job for the most part. It had days that were worse than others, but that is to be expected. Her husband had told her shortly after she gave birth to Zachary that she did not have to go back to work if she didn’t want to. He was doing very well, and she could just be a stay-at-home mom and housewife. She refused, and wanted to do something with her time, even if it was just waiting tables at the Main Street Café.
    When Marcy arrived at work it started out as a typical day. There were a few people (in an early morning/zombie like daze) still coming in for their bacon and egg breakfast and large coffee. It wasn’t long before she discovered that no one had taken the time to brew a new pot of coffee. Even though she was being distracted by a customer who felt the need to tell her every detail of his granddaughter’s life, she was still able to make a new pot.
    At around ten o’clock things died down in a major way, but she had very little time to slow down. The lunch rush would start before long.
    The lunch rush turned out to be absolutely dreadful. For some odd reason nothing went as planned. It seemed that every time Marcy turned around there was some kind of issue going on with someone’s food or the service they were receiving. It was not working out to be a very good day for her, and to make things worse, it didn’t look like Rod was going to stop in for his regular lunch.
    Rod could always brighten up her day with a wink and a smile.
    Oh well. She thought. Even though she sent him a message last week that went unanswered, she knew she would see him sooner or later. Why worry about it?
    When two o’clock rolled around, she really felt beat down by the lunch rush. Everyone was completely gone, but she was still feeling it. As she riddled through the pile of receipts to see how well they actually did that day. She started to think more about Rod.
    I’ll be out of here a little before five. I think a little meeting might be in order . Marcy thought to herself with a grin. Marcy retrieved her cell phone from her purse and quickly typed up a text message:
    MEET ME AT OUR MOTEL AFTER WORK! The text read, and without another thought she sent it. Marcy continued on with her work, cleaning tables, and making sure everything was in order for later in the day when the supper crowd would come running through the doors. Marcy imagined some huge crowd running into the restaurant in a mad frenzy and could not help but laugh to herself a little bit. Marcy hadn’t worked an evening in almost three years and didn’t care to do it again. The evenings were never really busy, and the hours just stunk. If she liked sleeping in and