Eggs, Toast, Potatoes & Coffee – Only $.99.” That’s for me, thought Matthew with a sigh, lovingly fondling the twenty in his pocket. He entered the café, took off his overcoat and sat down in a booth. The place was nearly empty, it being the slack period between lunch and dinner. Within a few minutes a bored-looking waitress possessing a huge beehive of flaming red hair ambled slowly over to his booth. She wore a standard pink uniform, complete with frilly white apron, and was chewing a large wad of gum with an enviable rhythmic intensity. In between chews she managed to say to Matthew, “You know what ya want, honey, or do ya need a menu?” “Give me the ninety-nine cent breakfast special, please,” responded Matthew without hesitation. “Comin’ right up, big spender,” she replied, turning Matthew’s coffee cup right side up in its saucer and filling it with coffee from a Pyrex pot. “How ya want them eggs?” “Over easy, please.” “You got it, honey,” she said and sauntered back to the kitchen, cracking her gum as she went. In about ten minutes she returned with the advertised breakfast items which Matthew began devouring immediately between large gulps of coffee. Before the waitress could leave, he caught her by the elbow and pointed to his coffee cup, mumbling unintelligibly as his mouth was full of food. She shrewdly divined his meaning and refilled his coffee cup, then as she had no one to attend to at the moment, sat down in a booth across from Matthew’s and stared at him in openmouthed curiosity. When a scant few minutes later he pushed away his plate with a sigh of contentment, she walked over and D e s c e n d i n g
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