Dani entered Rafe’s Diner as she usually did, to a chorus of “Where the hell you been?” from Rafe and his bride, Ruby. The deputy had once been a daily visitor to their dining establishment, but her new obligations to Sarah and the mommas had steered her in another direction, and she didn’t get to spend as much time with restaurateurs. She hated it, truth be told. They had always treated her like the daughter they never had, and Dani enjoyed the hell out them.
“Bacon or no?” Rafe shouted from the grill.
“No,” Dani said. Bacon cheeseburger or plain cheeseburger was the only variable in her order on each visit.
“Put bacon on the side,” Ruby insisted. “We need to fatten this girl up.”
“You know I can out-eat everybody in Baptist Flats, Ruby.”
“Then you got a tapeworm or something, Dani Savage. Ima schedule an appointment with Doc Costner.”
“Good Lord,” Rafe said, tending to the basket of fries in the deep fryer, “let the girl be tiny in peace. Don’t everybody gotta spread out like you.”
Ruby shook her head in disgust.
Dani gasped. “That ain’t nice, Rafe. You apologize to your pretty bride.”
Ruby waved her off. “It ain’t nothing but an elephant calling a hippo out for being fat. He can say all he wants about my spreading out. He’ll be begging to dive into it tonight, just you wait and see.”
Rafe laughed. “I didn’t say I’m against it. I’m just saying you gotta let Dani be her own size without aggravating the hell out of her.”
The chatter from the dozen or so diners made for a nice ambient accompaniment to the old married couple’s playful bickering. Dani didn’t even realize the prattling was there until it came to an abrupt stop. It ceased shortly after the bell above the entrance rang. She turned to look at the white faces of the restaurant’s patrons as they stared slack-jawed at the newest customer. Dani craned her neck to see what had them baffled beyond the ability to shut their cake holes.
There stood a statuesque black woman dressed as if she’d been influenced by the nineties grunge movement. Her light brown hair hung in tight, billowing curls and brushed the tops of her shoulders as she turned her head from gawker to gawker.
Ruby broke the awkward silence. “Welcome to Rafe’s, darling. Sit where you want. Menus are on the tables.”
The woman grinned and nodded as she approached the counter. “This seat available?” she asked Dani.
The deputy hesitated only because she found it strange that of all the empty seats the woman chose the one where she’d have to fight for elbowroom with Dani. “You right-handed or left-handed?”
“Left,” the woman answered.
“Me, too. Have a seat.”
The woman sat down. “What if I’d been right-handed?”
“You’d be sitting on the other side of me,” Dani said with a friendly smile.
The woman smiled back. “Makes sense.” She extended her hand. “Name’s Nola.”
Dani took her hand and gave the stranger a firm grip. “Dani.”
“I can call you that?”
Dani raised an eyebrow. “Why wouldn’t I want you to call me by my name?”
Nola shrugged. “It’s just that where I come from the police are a bit more…standoffish. They like to be called Officer So-and-So.”
“Well, my rule is if you’re wearing handcuffs, you call me Deputy Savage. Otherwise you can call me Dani.”
Nola smiled and nodded. “I like that. I like that.”
“Drink, darling?” Ruby asked.
“Coffee,” Nola said. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me until you’ve had a cup,” Ruby said, moving to retrieve the pot. “Rafe made it. The man can cook the hell out of a burger, but his coffee has been described as offensive at best.”
“Don’t you listen to her, missy,” Rafe said, placing Dani’s burger and fries on the window. “People praise my coffee from here to Memphis.”
Ruby placed a cup in front of Nola and filled it with the dark brew. “What he means is people pray for God’s help from here to Memphis after they have a cup of his coffee.”
Nola let the coffee settle into the cup before looking up at her audience. Rafe, Ruby, and Dani all had eyes on her to witness her reaction to her first sip. She nodded nervously, wiped her hands together, and then picked up the cup. “Here goes nothing.” She put the cup to her lips and slurped up the tiniest bit of the liquid. It was awful, but she fought to control her expression.
“Good Lord,” Ruby said, “She ain’t dead. It’s a miracle.”
“Hush up, Ruby,” Rafe said. “Wha’cha think, missy?”
Nola had to force herself to swallow the coffee. She did so by telling herself that it would probably strip away the enamel on her teeth if she didn’t. “I’ve had worse.”
Ruby laughed. “Darling, trust me, he’s dumb enough to take that as a compliment. I told him the same thing after our honeymoon, and he ain’t stopped patting himself on the back yet.”
The three ladies laughed while Rafe grunted and skulked back into the kitchen, mumbling, “All I need is to get ganged up on by a bunch of females.”
Nola got a worried look on her face. “Is he really mad?”
“He’s always really mad,” Ruby said. “Now wha’cha want to eat? Hamburger, cheeseburger, meatloaf? Anything with ground beef we can do.”
“I’m really not that hungry…”
“Hamburger it is then,” Ruby said.
“But…”
Ruby walked to the window into the kitchen. “Get on the grill, you big baby. Hamburger plate’s up.” She turned to Nola. “How do you want it?”
“Um…I guess…medium?”
Ruby turned back to the window. “Medium rare. Grill up some onions, too.”
Nola nudged Dani. “She heard me, right? I mean, I did say I wasn’t hungry, didn’t I?”
Dani smiled with a mouthful of cheeseburger. After swallowing she said, “She heard you. Not hungry means you get the hamburger. Medium rare. Rafe don’t cook it any other way. Still haven’t figured out why Ruby asks. Hungry, you get the cheeseburger. Starving, you get the meatloaf, the mashed potatoes, a bucket of gravy, biscuits, and a slice of apple pie.” She stopped just before taking another bite of her cheeseburger. “And a milkshake.”
“Noted,” Nola said.
Setting the cheeseburger down, Dani snatched a napkin out of the dispenser and wiped the grease away from her fingers. “You on your way somewheres?”
“On my way? No. I’m just driving.”
“From?”
“Louisiana.”
“Well, that’s some drive. You are far from it, Nola.” Dani snapped her fingers. “Nola. Louisiana. New Orleans. That a given name?”
“It is. Used to hate it, but it’s grown on me.”
“It’s pretty. Not like my name.”
“Dani? Short for Danielle, right? That’s pretty.”
“It ain’t short for Danielle. It’s short for Daniel. My father was a prick that was expecting a boy. Wouldn’t move off the name when he was informed I was missing the essential boy parts, so I grew up Daniel Clark Savage.”
“Clark?”
“And that’s why I didn’t go by my middle name.”
“Well, my middle name is Beasley, so I had the same problem.”
Dani held up her glass of Coke and said, “Here’s to names and all the hell that comes with them.”
Nola held up her cup and nodded. “Amen.” She couldn’t bring herself to drink the coffee to seal the toast.
“Where you headed after seeing the booming metropolis of Baptist Flats?”
Nola shrugged. “Haven’t given it any thought. I’m just kind of making up the route as I go.”
“Must be nice. You independently wealthy?”
“Nah, I just don’t need much.”
“Well, Baptist Flats is the place for that. There ain’t much here.”
Ruby set a Coke on the counter in front of Nola. “It ain’t coffee, but it won’t kill you, neither.”
“Thanks.” She took a quick swig to get the taste of Rafe’s coffee out of her mouth.
“Meal’s on the house,” Ruby said.
“What? Why? I can pay…”
“Got nothing to do with your means to pay. Got everything to do with you helping me make Rafe look like an ass. You earned it.”
Nola put on an awkward smile and said, “All I did was have a sip of his coffee.”
“That’s all you needed to do,” Ruby said, making her way from behind the counter to wait on a group of customers in the booth near the back of the diner.
Nola watched her walk away and noticed a number of people staring at her. Turning back to Dani she asked, “Let me guess. You don’t have a lot of black folks in Baptist Flats.”
Dani looked at the people staring at Nola and chuckled. “Well, the fact is we don’t have a lot of folks period in Baptist Flats. A stranger is gonna cause a stir no matter what. But, yes, I’m sorry to say a black stranger will cause a bigger stir.”
“Should I be worried?”
Dani shook her head. “Not a bit. They’re all racist as shit, but they ain’t the burn-a-cross-in-your-front-yard kind. They’re the they-got-their-own-month-what-more-do-they-want kind. Just as ignorant, but not near as dangerous.”
“Good to know.”
Dani nibbled on a French fry. “My turn to ask a question.”
“I wasn’t aware we were taking turns.”
Ignoring her reply, Dani said, “Why’d you choose that stool?”
“This stool?”
“Got a whole row to choose from. You got booths and tables for days, but you chose to sit right next to me. Why is that?”
Nola’s face turned sour. “My kind not welcome to sit next to you?”
Dani chuckled. “Good Lord, don’t go there on me. That’s not what I meant at all. I just find it curious. Most folks put as much distance between them and the law as possible. You cozied right up to me.”
Nola breathed a little easier and rolled up her sleeve revealing a tattoo on her right forearm. It was the Marine Corps emblem, the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor, with two pistols crossed at the barrels above it. The motto ASSIST - PROTECT - DEFEND formed an arch above the tattoo, and below it were two letters, M-P.
“MP,” Dani said to herself aloud. “Military Police?”
“I saw you, and I said to myself, ‘There’s a woman with a badge. That’s your people, Nola.’ ”
Dani held up her Coke and invited Nola to join her in a toast again. “Proud to know you, Nola Beasley…What’s your last name?”
“Babineaux.”
“Babineaux? Damn. You don’t get more New Orleans than Nola Babineaux.”
“No, you do not.”
“Well, as I was saying, damn proud to know you Nola Beasley Babineaux.”
“Likewise Deputy Dani Clark Savage.”
They drank from their glasses and set them back on the table.
“Your daddy,” Nola said. “He live in Baptist Flats?”
Dani shook her head a little too enthusiastically. “Thank the Lord, no.”
“You two don’t get along?”
“As I may have mentioned before, he’s a prick. And that’s the nicest thing I can say about him.”
“That’s a shame.”
“Well, they say the Lord don’t give you nothing you can’t handle, but whoever said that never met my daddy. He’s what most folks can’t handle.” Dani reached into her pocket and pulled out a ten-dollar bill. Tossing it on the counter, she stood. “It’s been nice chatting with you, Nola, but duty calls. Hope to run into you again before you leave town.” She said her goodbyes to Rafe and Ruby and vacated the diner under a chorus of “Don’t be a stranger!”
When the deputy had climbed into her cruiser, Nola said under her breath, “We’ll be running into each other again. You can count on that, Dani Savage.”