Night Town: The Acidhead Avengers--Part 6--Now Open

Dalene and Gabe stopped dead in their tracks at the entrance of Danny’s Diner.

CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

“Fuuuuuck,” whined Dalene.

Gabe rallied. “It’s not the end of the world.”

“But there’s only ONE Danny’s diner!”

“That was sarcasm, right? So we go to Herb’s Pit Stop.” The racecar-themed 24-hour joint was about 10 minutes away.

“Well, it’s either that or fast food. Ugh.”

Gabe’s car pulled up to Herb’s. His scruffy beard was well beyond a five o’ clock shadow but he kept vowing that he wouldn’t let that continue for more than a few days. He was between projects at work and couldn’t be bothered at the moment. Dalene was wearing her usual combination of black and neon green in some part of her clothing, though today it was mostly black. After a turbulent past six years or so and a whole lot of loitering at Danny’s, Dalene had finally secured employment at a relatively high-end marijuana collective. She actually had to wear slacks and a collared shirt to work, so without fail she reverted to her gutter punk shredded hoodies with patches in her off time. Pretty much the moment she left work. The two walked up to Herb’s.

An overly cheerful hostess greeted them with a smile. “Can I help you?”

“Two, please.”

You could hear a pin drop.

“Shiiiiiiit,” said Dalene. “Now we’ve gone and done it. A room full of sobers.”

“No way,” said Gabe. It’s 1 am. There’s just no way.”

“Believe you me, I know the energy right away.”

Gabe’s expression dropped. “So, what do we do?”

“Order food. I’m fucking hungry.” Tonight they decided on sliders, veggie deluxe nachos and flavored Cokes.

“There’s not even a claw machine here,” moped Dalene.

“You know those things are rigged, right?”

“Oh, whatever, Mr. Challenged- Danny-Downer-to-a-Game. Maybe rigged for you to win!”

The air was strangely stale in Herb’s. That sense of something on the brink. Uncomfortable gazes hovered on the two, the least conservatively-dressed pair in the house. Food arrived. Dalene wiggled in the booth, made a quick motion, and then resumed her seat.

“What did you just do?”

Dalene grinned. Immediately, beyond Dalene’s shoulders, Gabe noticed a grocery store vending machine rubber bouncy ball bounce over one booth and knock over a drink in the booth beyond that. Several eyes were suddenly on the pair.

A small figure crawled out of the booth where the glass had been hit.

“Flavorcakesflavorcakesflavorcakes!!” A child who appeared to be anywhere from 8 to 11 years old popped forward, with holographic hypno-eyed lenses.

“I KNOW YOUUU. You’re Dalene and Gabe, the Urban Shamans. I seen you on TV. I wanna join you.”

“Christopher, young man, come sit down in the booth THIS INSTANT.” A thin, high-cheekboned woman raised her voice.

“Don’t worry,” added the child, who seemed to be wearing strangely grownup slacks for a Thursday night, “Iii’m in the RAT PACK. Eyohh baby, get me a martini. Me and D. and Gabe gonna go crawl inside some heads.”

Dalene and Gabe began eating somewhat anxiously.

“See,” said Dalene, hushed, "I told you that Herb’s isn’t just the kinda place you can hang and people-watch for hours. They care.” Glares started to move in the direction of their booth. They finished hurriedly.

“Check, please,” said Gabe, furtively. Several minutes later the two got up to pay. A woman in a suit walked up to the pay counter.

“Sir and Ma’am, I’m going to need to ask you to not rejoin our establishment again. Some of our customers have complained about your unusual behavior.”

“No problem,” nodded Gabe.

Dalene yelled over several booths “Hey, KID! KID! Uhh, Christopher! You’re awesome! She drew another bouncy ball out of her pocket and threw it.

Over the whole restaurant, the child yelled “THANKS, TOOTS! HAVE A PRESENT!” He threw his hypno-glasses at Dalene.

“Sweeeeeeet.”

Just as the door slammed behind Gabe, Dalene re-opened it.

“Fuck all y’all! Danny’s Diner is better than this dump!”

“Hey. There are kids around.” The two trudged back to the car.

“Fuck those assholes. We’re gonna drive by Danny’s every night until it re-opens.”

“Hey D. I was just thinking. How the hell is that kid awake at 1am on a weeknight?”

Dalene shrugged.

“Well, that’s a new one. We’ve been threatened to get kicked out of Danny’s plenty of times, but it’s never actually happened.”

Night town sirened, flickered and chirped.

“Serves us right, for hanging with sobers.”

--

Gabe and Dalene drove by their usual Danny’s for three nights until they gave up. Avenging and Urban Shaman-ing was called off for a week after that. One night Dalene received a phone call.

“Wanna go for a walk? I’m in the area after the work beat.”

“You know it.” Dalene loved late-night walks.

That night, their journeying brought them farther than they expected. “Hey,” said Dalene, “Danny’s is just two blocks away. Let’s go check it out.”

“Why not.” The yellow-and-orange sign evoking fried food was a strange beacon in the hot night.The horizon grew closer.

NOW OPEN

“Aaand we’re back!” exclaimed Dalene, friendly-punching Gabe in the shoulder. “Let’s DOOO this.”