There Was A Phone Book

 

            Under the phone on the table I found a thin phone book. Just a pamphlet really. It had been years since I had held a phone book. I flipped the pages. Quite a novelty. There were even some ads. Farm supply places. A clinic. A tavern. A café. Hm.
            I had my own phone, but the little snitch was zipped firmly into a Farraday bag, made by yours truly.
            It was getting a little hungry out. I didn’t see an ad for a grocery store, but there was the café. Lorenzo’s was a couple blocks further down the highway.
            I stuffed my wallet in my jeans, leaving the rest of my stuff in No. 7, and I strolled out into the heat and light. I might have to invest in a hat, I thought, as I locked up the door, and tested the handle. Overhead the locusts rustled slightly in a breeze.
            Luminous was right. The place baked under the naked sun. The air was utterly clear. As I walked the block back to the highway I looked around. If there were over three thousand souls here I wasn’t sure where they were keeping themselves. There must be some residents outside of town. Farm houses for sure.
            If I was going to fade into obscurity here, I needed to find out where everything was.
            The first block; a closed general store on my side. A gas station on the other side. Then there was a movie place, open on weekends, my side of the road.
            In the next block I found Lorenzo’s, open for business. It was flanked by two closed businesses. Across the highway was a pharmacy that appeared to be open. The front of the building was adorned with deep red tiles and there was a planter in front with living flowers in it.
            So, I opened Lorenzo’s door and stepped into a cool, dark room. In a moment I realized that it wasn’t dark, it was just the contrast with the light outside. My eyes began to adjust. I saw six tables, each with a glass containing a few plastic flowers. Two tables were occupied. Closest to the door were two men, probably in their sixties. They looked like farmers, or ranchers to me. The other table, nearer the kitchen, was occupied by a thin woman wearing a cotton sundress with yellow flowers, with what appeared to be her grandson possibly.
            The door had one of those bells on it. When it rang out my arrival, all eyes, including the waitress/maybe cook’s turned toward me. One of the men nodded and smiled briefly, then turned back to his friend and they continued their conversation.
            The thin lady said, “hi, stranger. How did you find us?” Quite the joker. Her grandson, maybe ten years old, giggled.
            “It was hard, but here I am,” said I, glad of any greeting, no matter how odd.
            I took a seat at the table next to them. A short dark haired woman with one of those plain white aprons on, bustled out of the kitchen to hand me a one sheet menu, home printed and covered in a plastic envelope.
            “Take your time, I’ll be back in a minute,” she said and buzzed back into the kitchen.
            “That’s Maria. I’m Lucy, professional rancher’s wife, this is John, my onliest grandson,” said Lucy. She had that kind of slightly weathered look of ladies who live in climates like this and go outside. She looked like she wouldn’t mind talking to a stranger.
            Taking a quick peek at the menu, I saw a smattering of Mexican dishes, and a few things like burgers, and other sandwiches.
            “My name is Jenae,” I said, looking over the menu at Lucy and John.
            “Nice to meet you, what brings you to Luminous, Texas?” said Lucy.
            “Oh, mostly curiosity. I write. Writers are nosy. I thought I’d absorb the atmosphere for a while. I was intrigued by the name,” I said, seeing if she was buying it.
            “Well, Jenae, I don’t know if we have much atmosphere around here, but you are sure welcome to it.” She looked amused. “Me and this feller have to head back to the ranch. Enjoy, Jenae. Maybe there’s more than meets the eye! Hard to say!”
            She yelled, “bye Maria.” They passed out into the light and walked to a pickup parked nearby.
            Maria reappeared at my table and took my order for three lengua tacos and a large Coke. She smiled and said, “good choice.”
            “Hey, is there a grocery around here?” I asked before she vanished again. “Yeah, up at the end of downtown here, is a little place. Almost a grocery store. It’s not much of a hike,” said Maria. “We buy ours from a restaurant supply. They truck it in.”
            The two salt of the earth types, got up. Each put cash on the table, and they split, noting my existence with smiles. I was beginning to really dig Luminous.
            So, it was just me and Maria, in the kitchen assembling my tacos.
            Right about then the bell rang again, and a sort of human bronco appeared. Mixed race ranch hand I would have guessed. He had it all except for the saddle. He moved like a rattler. Sudden.
His bootheels clattered across the linoleum. Hands in his pockets, he hooked a chair out from under the neat little table where Lucy had been sitting with a booted foot, and took a seat.
            He put his hat on the table, glanced around the room, saw my harmless self, his lip curled, his black eyes snapped, and he looked away.
            Maria brought me my tacos. The wild man was there to pick up an order. He paid Maria and took off, as suddenly as he had manifested moments before.
            “Never mind Flores. Most of us are pretty friendly,” said Maria.
            “The tacos were great. Thanks, Maria. Say, um, you don’t need any help around here do you?” I asked her. She gave a serious once over and said, “maybe. What do you want to do, cook or wait tables?”
            “Oh, I’m not a cook, but I’ve done tables before.”
            “I’ll try you,” she said. “If I didn’t have to keep running out here, my life would be a little easier. Come tomorrow at ten? It’s $7.25 an hour and you get your tips.”
            “I’ll be here. I’m staying down around the corner at the motel. I figure my best chance of getting to know Luminous is right here in this room,” I told her.
            “That’s probably exactly right,” she said.
            “Where can I get a hat,” I asked before leaving.
            “Oh, on foot, the drug store has some straw hats,” she said. “No dept stores in Luminous!”
            On the way home I crossed the highway and bought a white straw western hat, and some bottled water, nuts, and chips, and a chocolate bar, dark. They had those.