At 2:30 a.m., I couldn’t sleep any longer. Cruised into the Waffle House. All told, six other customers and 2 employees. The juke box was blissfully quiet. This usually means everyone is sober.

The dancers from Southern X-posure are sitting there eating and laughing and carrying on like the young girls they are. Their heavy makeup and false eyelashes still perfect after what must have been a long night. Me, basically, in my pajamas. There are two old guys in the back booth behind me. I’m getting hard of hearing which is starting to annoy me and interfere with my people watching. I think they were talking about Vietnam, but I couldn’t be sure enough to join the conversation. Yesterday, March 29, was the Vietnam War Day of Remembrance.
I am sitting in a booth eating my usual: two eggs over easy, wheat toast well done and well buttered, hashbrowns with extra onion, and sausage. Coffee. Of course, coffee
The old guys leave first. Sure enough one is wearing a hat emblazoned with Army Veteran.
My waitress, a stunningly beautiful African American woman, offers to pour me more coffee. She is soft-spoken and seems shy. She too is wearing false eyelashes. Is this a thing now? Last year it was eyebrows, so I bought an eyebrow pencil. I think I draw the line at false eyelashes.
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