Fiction · early piece · a diner, two men, old debts
Jack and Marty are sitting in a diner.
Jack: "You know what I find fascinating about old diners like this?"
Marty: "The stale coffee or the worn-out seats?"
Jack: "Nah, it’s the stories. Think about it, how many conversations happened right here at this very table?"
Marty: "A fair share of dreams and nightmares, I’d reckon."
Jack: "Exactly. Now pass me the salt, would ya?"
Marty: "Salt won’t fix the mess on that plate."
Jack: "A good conversation can fix a lot more than a bad meal."
Marty: "I prefer conversations that aren’t compensating. Though I suppose we all need to make up for what we didn’t do right."
Marty looks away, his gaze fixed on something outside the diner window. A long silence hangs between them. The food sits on the table. Neither touches it.
Jack: "You ever think about where you’d end up if the cards were dealt differently?"
Marty: "You mean if I didn’t shoot the sheriff?"
Jack: "Exactly. You think you’d have a white picket fence, a dog, and all that jazz?"
Marty: "Nah, I’d probably just have a different gun."
Jack: "You're a real poet, you know that?"
Marty: "I try. Now, about that coffee..."
Jack hands Marty the coffee. Marty stares at it warily but ends up drinking it. As he puts it down he grimaces.
Jack: "I've been coming here for years and the coffee hasn’t improved a bit."
Marty: "Some things never change."
Jack: "Speaking of change, you ever think about leaving this town?"
Marty: "And miss all this? Not a chance."
Jack: "What's 'all this' you’re afraid of missing? The cops? The coffee? The constant looking over your shoulder?"
Marty: "I suppose it’s the people that make living worthwhile.”
Jack sits in silence.
Jack: "You’re a rare breed."
Marty: "Just well-marinated in reality."
Jack: "Remember that time we found ourselves in that poker game down in Tijuana?"
Marty: "How could I forget? The stakes were higher than a kite in a hurricane."
Jack: "But you played it cool, even when that guy pulled a blade."
Marty: "Well, bluffing's the same in cards as in life, you just gotta have a poker face."
Jack: "And a fast hand."
Marty: "That too."
Jack: "I was just thinking life’s a bit like that game of cards, don’t you think?"
Marty: "Yeah, and the house always wins in this one too."
Jack: "True, and we can’t do anything but play the hand we’re dealt. But every now and then, you get a wild card."
Marty: "Or a joker."
Jack: "Ever think about what it means to be a joker in a world full of kings and queens?"
Marty: "No, but I reckon you’re about to tell me."
Jack: “Means you get to laugh while the world burns.”
Marty: "I’d sooner have no laughing and no burning."
Jack: "You ever get tired of this life?"
Marty: "Every day. But then I wake up and do it all over again."
Jack: "A vicious cycle."
Marty: "But it’s our cycle."
Jack: "Till the wheels fall off, huh?"
Marty: "Till the wheels fall off."