A Different World Ch. 04

"Mildred," the man called to the waitress. "Call the police. Tell them we got people here don't wanna pay for their food."

"Yeah, call them, Mildred," I said defiantly. "This place is trying to rip us off!" Edie had been sitting quietly through all of this, shaking silently in anger. But she kept her mouth shut.

After about five minutes a young police officer entered the room. "Morning, Dave," he said to the man, who turned out to be the owner. "What's the problem?"

"These people don't wanna pay for their food." Dave said angrily, pointing to us. The officer strode over.

"What's the matter?" he asked. "Don't you have money?"

"Of course we have money," I calmly explained. "Look at this food?" I pointed to our plates. "Would you pay for this?"

The officer stared at our food silently for a minute. This was not good. Finally he spoke. "Dave," he asked, "Did y'all burn their food on purpose?"

"I'm not the cook," Dave snapped back.

"Not what I asked," the officer replied. "Let me try again. Would you eat this food?"

"No," Dave replied. "I've got diabetes. I can't eat that stuff anymore."

"Still not what I asked," the officer replied. For the first time, I felt a glimmer of hope. "Tell you what, Dave. If you want them to pay for this food, you have to remake it. This time do it right."

"I ain't remaking anything." Dave was livid. "I need to get paid."

"Well if you don't remake it, I'm going to call my cousin over at the health department, tell him you're serving undercooked food. These people could get food poisoning. Then we'd have to shut you down. Matter of fact, I'm taking these plates as evidence. You want that?" Dave grumbled but shook his head no. He turned and went back in the kitchen. The officer smiled. He turned to us. "While they remake your food, I need you too to step outside, so I can check you out."

We followed the officer out to the car, where we produced our drivers' licenses. He called our names in over the radio, and when we came back clean, he spoke. "Mr. MacFarland, you're a Virginia boy so you know how this goes."

Edie, who'd been silent until now, spoke. "How what goes?" she demanded.

"Easy, easy, lady." The cop replied. "You're in a small town. People are set in their ways. Some people don't like seeing the two of you travelling together. Dave is one of them."

"How were we supposed to know?" I asked.

"Well if you two are going to be hanging around together you have to expect things like that." the officer replied. "I don't agree with them, but we have to keep the peace around here. Now I bought you some time, I got you what you paid for. But I suggest you don't hang around here too long. Dave's probably calling his friends right now. I don't want there to be any further incidents."

He followed us back inside the restaurant where our new plates were waiting. We looked them over. Everything was done perfectly. "Is this good enough for you?" he asked. We nodded our approval. "Good. Mildred, put these in some take out containers. Make sure they have knives and forks." He turned to us. "Now pay the man his money. I'll wait outside."

We paid for our food, then met the officer outside. "I'm going to escort you out of town," he said. "Sorry you had a problem here. These really are some nice people once you get to know them. Don't judge us all by what he did."

The officer followed us out of town and made sure we were on our way without further incident. We ate our breakfast, which was cold by then, at the park. The waterfall and scenery were beautiful even though we weren't in the high mountains we'd come from. After a short hike we decided to cut our day short, taking a different, longer way back to our cabin. Edie's mood had turned sour and brooding.

Back at the cabin it all came to a head. "Kenny," Edie asked, "Why are you with me? Am I just some exotic black girl you fool around with until the novelty wears off?"

I assured her that wasn't why I was with her, but she was not satisfied. "Are you prepared to deal with people like that?" she asked pointedly. "Because I have to deal with assholes wherever I go. You can always walk away and go back to Becky with the good hair."

"Who's Becky?" I asked, not getting the reference.

"Some white girl you can be with and nobody will bother you," Edie replied. She was upset with me. I couldn't understand why. I thought I'd handled the situation this morning rather well.

"What would you do if there weren't any cops around? Or if the one that showed up was looking for an excuse to put us in jail or worse?"

I honestly didn't know the answer. I'd like to think that I'd have stood by Edie. We'd done no wrong. To my way of thinking, the police were the good guys. We hadn't done anything wrong. It had never occurred to me that the situation might have gone very badly. I expected the worst case would have been we'd have to pay for inedible food.

"You know," Edie said. "That situation could have gone very wrong. We could have been jailed for trying to steal food. Even though we were in the right the po-lice don't always see our side. If you gonna be with me, you have to learn about things like this."

"I do wanna be with you," I said. "More than anything." I could tell she wasn't buying it.

"I'm playing for keeps, Kenny." Edie snapped. "if you can't deal let me know. What you gonna do when I meet your family?"

"They already know," I replied. "They've seen you. At the wedding. And they don't have a problem with us."

"Not the point, Kenny," Edie replied icily. "It's a different world for us. And when you with me they see you as one of us. Can you deal with it? Can you deal with people looking at you like you gonna rob them all the time, just cuz you got me on your arm? Can you hang? Cuz if you can't better let me know now. I ain't wasting my time if you ain't gonna be there for me."

And with that, Edie shut herself in one of the bedrooms and wouldn't come out. I didn't understand why she'd turned on me. I'd done nothing to her. But she wouldn't even talk to me through the closed door. And when it came time to go to rehearsal, she refused to go.

The sound check and rehearsal went well. We hit it off with the band, whose specialty was Celtic and English folk music. What we did wasn't that much different from what we did. Ours was Appalachian folk and bluegrass, which traced its roots to the very music these guys performed.

After the rehearsal we all went out to dinner. I called Edie, but she wasn't answering her cell phone. SO, I went alone. Everybody else had girlfriends or family along but me. Alfie, one of the band members asked why. I told him about the incident this morning, and how when we got back, she'd freaked out.

"Just be loving and understanding," he said. "I've been where you're at. Give her time. If she loves you, she'll come around."

"But I did nothing to her," I replied. "The first time we encounter racism as a couple she wants to bail on me."

"Like I said, I've been where you're at. She probably doesn't want to end it with you. She just wants to know you'll be there for her. And right now, that incident has her rattled. Give her time to calm down."

I did feel a little better after that. I'd give her some space.

When we did the show that night, Edie wasn't there. I was hurt and disappointed. She'd always been at the gigs before. The band and Calvin went for drinks afterward, but I couldn't without Edie. So, I just went back to the cabin prepared for a cold night alone. At least her car was still parked outside.