Suddenly I froze.

"Oh my God," I said under my breath.

Standing right in front of us was Luke

Rory and I stood there looking dumbfounded. What was Luke doing in Kingston? Suddenly Luke looked in our direction, and stopped. I don't think he completely recognized me at first, but that's explainable, for I had changed a lot in the last couple years. I had cut my hair to a shorter, shoulder length, layered look. I had also lost a bit of weight (there had been less movie nights recently since Rory was away so much, and they made me kind of sad). Finally it clcked in Lukes head who he was starring at, and he to froze. He started to say my name, but then decided against it. Instead, tis came out of his mouth.

"I'm leaving." The Luke rushed back into the aisle that he just came out from, and out of sight. Rory was the one to recover first. " Mom, Mom are you ok?" she asked again. Again, I didn't answer her. "Mom?" Wow, this girls was annoying, Rory finnaly gave up on me and sat me down in the closest office chair. After a few minutes, I started to recover. "what do you you think he was doing here?" I asked Rory in dismay

" I don't know. He was probably just passing through or something. " Rory answered.

"And desperately needed office supplies?" I questioned. After a couple more minutes of deliberation, Rory and I decided that Luke was probably just passing through on his way to New York or something like that, and hey, even if he actually was living here, Kingston was a city. We would probably never see him again.

"Well, one thing's for sure," Rory added, " Like uncle like nephew." I gave her a weak smile. "You're sure you're ok?" Rory asked for the hundreth time.

"I'm sure, " I said. Just to reassure her, I looked around to the chair that I was sitting on. It was pink wit hsilver sequances on it. "Hey, I like this one, " I said with a smile.

"The official3000" Rory read in amocking tone, " let's take it.

Charlie's All American Cuisine

6:15 pm

We walked in to a virtually empty diner. That was odd. Charlie was wiping of a table. "Hey Charlie!" I greeted.

"Well, hello there you1" (Charlie had a problem with names, so everyone was you, or there, etc.)

"Charlie! Charlie!" the twins ran over to him

"Well isn't it Thing 1 and Thing 2!" Charlie held out his hands for a hive five. The twins gathered up all their strength, and his hand as hard as they could. "hmm, I think Thing 1 (Lori) over here hit harder this time. " Charlie said as he produced a cady from behind his ear. "Yayyy!" Lori cheered. But Logan wasn't diapointed, because he knew that he would win next time. It was a little game that charlie and the twins palyed every time we came here (which was really every day). Each time, one of the twins would win. Just then my stomach rumbled. I turned to Rory, "You get them settled, and all go order"

" 'Kay" rory answered. I went up to the counter. Charlie was already waiting there with his pad ready. "what'll you have" he asked.

" Well, lets see," I started, " 2 kids meals, 2 burgers, 2 chili fries, and of course-"

"Coffe!" Claudine, the ever-present, always- cheery waitress came up with a full coffee jug, and two cups.

"Ah, bless you," I said as Claudine poured the the good stuff.

"I'll go get started on the burgers, " Charlie said, " Claudine will you do the fries?"

"sure" Claudine said as she gave me a cup of coffee. I took a sip. As soon as Charlie was out of earshot I asked " Charlie is still cooking? When will you guys find someone to replace Matt?" Matt had been the diner's main cook for as long as I could remember. However, he had recently move out to Virginia so that he could actually live with his wife. "Well, actaully we did, " Claudine stated as she handed me a plate of fries. I took a one a started to chew on it.

"Oh, really, who?" I asked, finishing up my frie and taking another one.

"His name is Luke or Duke, or something along the lines of that" claudine said casually. Ok, breathe. There are plenty of other Lukes in this world. I told myslf. Claudine continued, " He's from a small town in Conneticut or something."

Ok, well that really confirmed it. Half of me expected Claudine ot say, Hey, aren't you from a small town in Conneticut? But then I remebered, that people here didn't really know much of my history. I continued to ask a few more questions. Hey, might as well get all the info, right? "So, " I tried to make my voice stay steady, " When does he start?" I asked.

"Why do care so much" Claudine asked, handing me another plate of fries. Uh oh, think of a lie, qiuckly I told myself " I just want to know how much longer I have to put up with Charlie's burgers" I joked.

"well, from what I know, Charlie gave him a few days to settle in, and then he'll start here within the week, I guess. " Claudine answered my question. Claudine and I exchanged small talk for a couple of minutes, and then I sllowly headed back to our table. It felt hard to stand. One step at a time I told myself. As I reached the table, Rory got that concerned look on her face again. "Mom are you ok?" She asked for the gazelienth time today.

"Luke's moving to town," I said as a slowly sat down, " and he coming to work here."