In Mi Casita: A Roswell Story

Because you couldnt see through the blinds and it had a solid white door like you never see in restaurants and you obviously couldnt see through that neither. I dont know. Maybe thats why.

There was a dozen tables front to back. Old fashioned stools at the counter where two old ladies sat the whole time I was there and a somberro pinata at the end of the counter like it was sleeping or something. The salt and peppers looked like old ashtrays. That amber tinted glass you always see in old ashtrays, is what I mean. And they had these ceiling fans with blue lights, probably because of the alien stuff you know.

I came through the front door like I said and but when anyone else came they came through the side door which was glass and had CAUTION stenciled on it, backwards, when you were outside.

First a Mexican with wide eyes comes through that door real wide eyes. He sits by himself. Then this whole family comes in this working-age man and a woman could of been his wife and two kids couldnt of been more than three and a old wrinkly lady holding another kid in a rocker. That one cried the whole time and the mother would reach down and rock it but it kept crying the whole time. The whole family was wearing t shirts like you get when you work somewhere or go to something. Sprint. Pioneer. You know. With the ads.

The waitress came over. The menu was in Spanglish. The waitress had a face like this girl Maria I knew in high school. She was pregnant. The waitress not Maria. I ordered the chile verde plato.

Then a young couple came through that glass door. I guess they knew the family because they started talking and pushed the tables together. They werent wearing t shirts though. Then a woman in white denim, top and bottom came through that door and she walked over to the man with the wide eyes and when he saw her he got her chair. Brother did he have wide eyes. He seemed nice enough though.

I was looking at how the napkins were square and with the printed flower pattern on them like you get at the store not like real restaurant napkins when this van pulled up out front and two guys with paint on their clothes come through the door. They smiled and said hey to the man with the wide eyes real loud. What I'm trying to say is, is that everyone knew everyone.

I'd been on the road since seven, funny how when I left it was freezing but here now outside it was warm and sun bleached like. Outside there was a Harley parked in front of a pawn shop and a biker sat in the sun and a other guy leaned in the door of the pawn shop. I watched them while I ate and I guess I was hungry because I ate fast. On the road since seven like I said.

While I was paying the bill three guys came in with goatees and tattoos like in a lowrider gang. Nobody greeted them. But they knew each other I guess that counts. Guess nobody greeted me neither.

I felt like saying goodbye to somebody, what with all the greeting going on but the waitress that looked like Maria was in the back. So I just left through that glass door.