A Thing Significant by Strange Little Swirl
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Josie and Z, nor do I pretend to. They're the belongings of some highly intelligent Canadians. The story and new characters are the products of too much time and imagination on my part.
"So what exactly are you doing in Philly?" Josie asked as they sliced onions in the back of the restaurant. Z had had to throw water on his face, as he had to when they had cooked at Blake Holsey. The restaurant was almost ready to close, and the last stragglers were getting the message that it was time to leave, since Josie had already done the preliminary table wipe and now Nico was basically pushing out customers out for the night. It was considerably quiet in the back, with the sounds of the city at night filtering through the back screen door."Passing through, really," he answered, sniffing. "So you live up here even when school's out?"
She nodded, but still not relenting. "Got a place-well, my mom has a place but she's up in Toronto-over on Pine."
"Walking distance?"
"During the school year, yeah. I just-" the young woman shrugged, putting down her onion. "I mean after everything I just-having the room to myself, knowing I'm probably not going to bump into someone grilling me for help on a paper-I just wanted some space."
"Some quiet Josie space, huh?" She nodded. He sniffed loudly, giving her a second one that was, strangely, apologetic for the first.
"So the top secret Z reason is in Philly will not be divulged, huh?" It was his turn to put down an onion to look at her seriously.
"Not when I'm slicing onions in the back of a restaurant. And those are the same aprons. They've been here for a while, then." Josie looked down at hers, noticing just exactly how threadbare and stained it was. She wrinkled her nose.
"I think this is more onions than Nico will need for Cheese steak Saturday." Nico swatted at her with a greasy towel as he lumbered by.
"Be happy you don't work at Geno's or Pat's, girl," he warned with mock severity. Josie rolled her eyes and cleaned up as her friend staggered to the doorway, moaning about the onions.
"You, my friend, have an allergy to onions. I've got allergy medicine in my purse if you want it." Noel Zachary gratefully accepted and by the time Nico was locking up, his eyes were no longer read and his nose had stopped running. Josie started the lazy walk towards Pine.
"Josie to the rescue," he said. After a second he added "Again."
Josie let out a laugh, and avoided a crack in the pavement that almost always got her. "Yes, well, I try not to think about that. That's all behind me now. The plan is to be normal college student; although the odds are already against me since I'm 'that foreign kid'. Someone from New Jersey asked me if I wanted to split a pie during a study session and I said I was fine with it as long as it was apple."
This gained a laugh from the lanky man to her right, who jammed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. It was strange to see him so casually dressed, but Josie thought it suited him a hell of a lot more than a suit.
"Do you like how they say 'post' and 'home'?" he asked, and she nodded with a smile. "Don't let them give you any crap about the boot of a car or anything."
"Yessir," Josie answered, she looked up and saw that they were near Mad Mex, and looked at her companion with an eyebrow raised.
"Starved," he admitted.
"Their service sucks," she warned a few minutes later, as they sat a table facing each other, "but the food is great. And vegetarian, so it works for me."
It was quite a while, in fact, for their food to come. Josie seized this as the perfect opportunity to find out what exactly Noel Zachary was doing 'passing through'.
He was watching a commercial idly when she pounced. "So you're not cutting up onions," she said bluntly. He blinked and looked at her with a confused expression for a moment before understanding what she meant.
"Josie, it's fine, it's just-"
"Family problems?" The look on his face was similar to the one he'd had that one day… "Something about your dad?" Perhaps not the most sensitive way to go about it, but it got the job done. Z opened his mouth for a second, and then closed it quickly, looking down.
"Precisely, to tell the truth."
The plastic straw was smooth and cut into her tongue as she chew on it. "Did he contact you? Everything alright?"
The man on the other side of the table sank back in his chair slightly, and Josie realized how insensitive she had been.
"Oh God, Z, I didn't mean to-"
"He's dieing."
And then guilt and sadness for her friend settled in some unpleasant combination at the bottom of her stomach. She whispered an apology. They ate quietly, the air thick with the awkwardness of the situation.
She paid the bill, not even looking over to him when it came, simply pulled it to herself and placed the cash on it before placing it in the waitress' hand. They slipped out onto the street and the quiet man let out a breath.
"I was a bitch in there, Z. I am so completely sorry." To her surprise he didn't walk away or react, he simply continued after a small shrug.
"They say he doesn't have a lot of time left-he's just too old and sick-and that he really wants me to see him, once last-"
Josie slipped a hand into his, not knowing what else to do. He stared at it for a moment, frowning.
"I'm not in school anymore, Z. So don't start. You need a friend right now, and I'm here, so unless you've got someone else in your back pocket, this is going to have to suffice."
"It was his wife that called. Yeah," he said when he saw the look of shock on Josie's face, "he is remarried. I heard kids in the background. She's young. And there's kids.
I always wanted siblings, when I was younger. Just not this way."
They walked another half a block in silence. "So when are you leaving?" Best to move on. Because in another second or two he'd throw a wall up, and it just seemed better if she changed the subject.
"Tomorrow night. I'm going to rent a car and make the drive to Virginia, I guess. I made it here impulsively. This is where I grew up, so I thought I could get my thoughts together here."
Josie mulled over all of this. Why did she feel this impulsive need to do something? The flesh of her lip made its way between her teeth and she worried at it, looking over at her former teacher. They had kept up with emails, infrequently, and pictures included. She knew this was not the old Professor Z. He had lost weight, he was pale, he was getting behind the wheel of a car to make a five hour drive…
"Driving tomorrow night? Z, you look like crap." She rushed onward, not allowing him the chance to protest. "Just go get some sleep and come by the restaurant if you want to talk, alright? I'm off at three tomorrow."She said goodnight and tucked down a side street to make it over to Pine, needing the time to herself to process exactly what her gut had instructed her to do.
"What is that?" Noel Zachary asked as Josie made her way to his booth against the wall. The object in question was a black Samsonite suitcase on wheels.
"It's my luggage."
He coughed nervously and took off his glasses to clean, instead of look across the table at her. Part of her was very nervous as to if he'd go along with her plan.
"Going somewhere?" he asked.
"Yes. With you."
The glasses dropped.
"What?"
Josie picked them up and handed them to him. "You are in no shape to make this drive by yourself. I'll just stay in the area, be a second driver when you need it. Nico's fine with me taking some time off."
"She's working too hard!" a voice came from the back, and they both winced, each forgetting how well Nico hears.
"Just remember that next time you complain about her, Nico!" Z calls back, and then turns back to her wearily. "I know that you're not going to give this up."
"It's like I'm the back of your hand or something," she said, mock fascination making the other booth's inhabitant sigh tiredly.
"I just know how stubborn you are, Josie. I don't even know how long I'm going to be down there. This could be days, weeks…I don't know. And I mean, this is all-"
"Rash? I thought you said you knew me, Z.""It's Noel."
Josie looked at him, questioning if he meant it, he turned a ketchup bottle to face the right way while he said: "If we're doing this, you should call me Noel."