Merriton

“Elvis said you folks pulled in late last night. Saw you back that truck up the dirt road in the dark. I think he was a little impressed.” The three of them looked at the girl behind the counter and didn’t say anything. “You guys want somethin’ to eat?” Sierra recovered first. “Yeah, I want that Egg Thing…” She scanned the chalkboard on the wall behind the girl. “You been here before?” Sierra smiled, “Yeah. Last winter we stayed at the lodge.” The girl squinted at Sierra, “Oh yeah. You just stayed here the whole time. You laughed at our jokes. Your husband fixes computers or somethin’.”

The girl looked at Kevin and then at Randy. Randy shook his head, “I don’t really fix computers…” The girl walked around the counter and took Randy by the hand. “Can you help me? I haven’t been able to get the Internet to work and we’re supposed to be an Internet cafe.” She pulled him over to the computer and he sat down. She took orders from Kevin and Sierra. “What would he want?” Randy stood up, “It’s back up. I just needed to reset the router. I want biscuits and gravy.”

They sat down in the nearly empty coffee shop. “Is this the place? I thought you said there were people all over,” Kevin asked. Sierra shrugged, “That was in the winter.” She nodded at the grizzled cowboy at the other side of the room and he nodded back. “It’s nice, though, right?” Kevin looked around. “Yeah, I guess.” Randy looked at the cowboy. The two of them watched each other until the food came.

“Now, this is on the house. Thanks for fixing the Internet.” She handed a huge platter of biscuits covered in country gravy to Randy, but he protested, “No. It was nothing, really. I just pushed a button. We can pay for our food.” The cowboy across the room called out, “Boy, if Angie wants to feed ya let her feed ya.” Angie handed out the rest of the food and retreated as the cowboy approached their table.

He sat right next to Randy and talked in a whisper, “You gotta lot to learn about etiquette, boy. We all know who you are. June said you paid cash for the Bowen house, so we all know that you’re some rich computer guy from San Francisco. You gotta let people pay for things when you help ‘em. Nobody likes to be a charity case.” The cowboy leaned back in his chair and Angie piped up, “It’s nothin’, Elvis. He didn’t mean nothin’ by it.”

Randy protested, more for Angie’s benefit. “It WAS nothing. You saw how quick it was. That wasn’t worth a whole meal. I just pushed a button.” Elvis poked him in the arm, “You pushed the right button, boy. Don’t you forget it. Just say thank you.” Randy looked at Elvis and back at Angie, then to Sierra. Elvis poked him again. “Say, ‘Thank you, Angie.’” Randy looked at Angie. “Thank you for the breakfast, Angie. I really appreciate it.” The tension lifted from the room and Angie smiled. “You’re welcome. Hope you like it. Be nice, Elvis.” She retreated to the kitchen.

Elvis chuckled to himself, “Be nice. Tell the city boy to be nice.” Then he turned and looked at the three of them. “I been waitin’ here all morning for you folks to come in.” He looked at Kevin. “Didn’t expect three ‘a ya, though.” The trio looked at Elvis and then at each other, but the cowboy kept his gaze on Kevin.

“My name’s Kevin Tso. I used to work with Random. I’m helping them move.” He stood up and held out his hand to Elvis. Elvis stood up and shook his hand, “Glad to meet you, Kevin.” Randy and Sierra stood up and spoke simultaneously, “I’m Randy.” “I’m Sierra.” The four of them looked at each other for a second. Elvis held out his hand to Sierra motioning her to sit. She did and when she did, Elvis sat as well.

“How’d you know we’d come in here?” Kevin asked with a mouth full of food. Elvis smiled. “You folks came in mighty late and I figured you didn’t bring any food in that truck, so you’d have ta eat somewhere. Roasters’ the closest place. Plus, everybody comes ta Roasters.” The cowboy watched them eat. When Randy pushed away his plate, Elvis spoke again. “Reason I wanna talk to you is ‘cause of my computer. It’s real important to me and I can’t find no one to fix it. I figure you came here to fix my computer and you’ll probably move away before the snow flies, so I was hopin’ you could do it soon.”

Randy smiled. “There are so many assumptions there that I don’t know where to start.” Elvis took off his hat and held it in his hands, running his fingers along the rim. “Listen, boy. Everybody comes here for a reason. What June says, you’re some kind of computer genius made a lot money and working at some big computer company down there. You bought the Bowen house, so we all know you’re gonna be out of here in a few months. Hopefully not in a box. Could ya just look at it?”

Randy shrugged. “What kind of computer is it?” Elvis looked him in the eye. “A Commodore 64.” Kevin laughed and spouted, “I’ll fix it! I haven’t seen one of those since I was a kid.” Randy shook his head, “Buy a new one.” Elvis shook his head, “It’s not as easy as that, boy. Before it died on me, I had all my stuff in there. I gotta get it out before I can use a new one.” Randy sighed. “How did it die?” Elvis made a rude noise with his mouth. “Shoot son, there was a flicker in the lights and some smoke. I think there was a power surge or something, but the bastards over at Radio Shack won’t even look at it… Laughed at me when I brought it in.”

Randy looked at Elvis. This was the sheep farmer whose property abutted his. They shared a driveway. “Let’s go look at your computer.”

A special thank you to the creators of Animal Crossing for the Nintendo DS.