Kelson picked up Sue Ellen at Nancy’s house at six thirty that evening. Dressed in dentist scrubs, Nancy waved from the door as their daughter ran down the front walk to his car.
Nancy and Kelson met in police academy, but she quit the department and went to dental school when Sue Ellen was born. Now she pulled teeth and, in her spare time, practiced taekwondo and jujitsu. Since she’d started dating again – a man whose name she wouldn’t tell Kelson, and even Sue Ellen wouldn’t spill – she seemed happier than he’d ever known her, at times almost affectionate, a development Kelson considered a turnoff. Still, just last week she’d said a mixed martial arts promoter had encouraged her to join the amateur competitions he staged in a southside warehouse on the first Monday of each month. So there was hope.
At Taquería Uptown, Kelson liked the bare walls and the carne asada. Sue Ellen liked the guacamole, the limón soda, and the chance to play Stump Dad when they sat side by side on the counter stools. A white-shirted, white-hatted counterman welcomed them as they came in.
Sue Ellen and Kelson sat, and before the counterman even set a limón soda in front of her, she started the questions.
‘Favorite food,’ she said.
‘Eggs,’ Kelson said.
‘Eggs?’
‘Scrambled – with glazed donuts.’
‘That’s just weird,’ she said.
‘Eggs.’
‘Fine. What’s your weirdest dream in the last week?’ she asked. ‘In three words or less.’
‘Eggs, eggs, eggs,’ he said.
‘Really?’
‘You know I never lie. Let’s just have a conversation tonight, OK?’
She didn’t bother to shake her head. ‘Tell me an embarrassing childhood memory.’
Kelson nodded at the counterman. ‘He doesn’t want to hear this.’
‘Sí, I do,’ the counterman said.
‘An embarrassing childhood memory,’ Sue Ellen said.
‘This is just mean,’ Kelson said.
‘And don’t say “eggs”.’
As he told it, mild disgust crossed her face, though the counterman listened with open-minded interest. ‘That’s gross, Dad,’ Sue Ellen said.
‘Don’t ask what you don’t want to know,’ he said. ‘Had enough?’
‘Are you kidding?’ she said. ‘This is just getting good. What did you do today in six words or less?’
‘You first,’ he said.
Sue Ellen took the challenge. ‘Homework sucks, homework sucks, homework sucks.’
‘Not much of a plot,’ he said.
‘That’s because homework sucks. Your turn.’
‘Big-boobed client loses Eighties DJ corpse.’
Sue Ellen counted with her fingers. ‘First of all, that’s seven. Second of all, a dad shouldn’t say “boob” to an eleven-year-old.’
‘Is “big-boobed” one word or two? And you made me.’
Kelson ate his tacos, Sue Ellen her tostadas. They went out for coffee afterward, and he treated her to a double espresso.
‘You know, this will keep me awake all night,’ she said.
‘I know,’ he said. ‘My gift to your mom.’