Jondy the Abandoner five: Dark Angel

Chapter three: The Patrons of Crash

Ten days later…

"Mom! What time are we gonna go?" Aldrea asked, filled with excitement. Her big brown eyes wide and shining.

"Not for another hour Kiddo, now go work on your project." Aldrea nodded and sulked off toward her room. She had been overjoyed to learn that her new school had spring break later than her old school, resulting in her getting another week off. However, her teacher had given her a journaling project, which Aldrea wasn't too keen on keeping up with. She didn't like to journal.

"Mom, I can't think of anything to write about," Aldrea whined. "I don't like writing down real things. I don't want people to read real things."

"Why don't you write about why you have to go to work with me, and then when we get home you can write about what it was like," Rachel suggested.

"But Mooooom…"

"Or, you can even bring your notebook with, and work on it a bit there. There really won't be much for you to do."

Aldrea looked horrified. "You wouldn't make me," she pouted.

"Oh you think I wouldn't?" asked Rachel, in a mock glare. She was frustrated that Aldrea had to come with in the first place. The least the girl could do was keep herself occupied with her homework.

Charlene usually watched Aldrea when Rachel worked, but she and Amy were off visiting Amy's grandmother during the break in school. Aldrea would have to be accompanying Rachel to all of her shifts this week. Rachel sighed, preparing herself for more exhaustion than Aldrea could probably ever create in her, but she needed to be ready just the same.

"Do you know everyone here?" Aldrea asked, as they walked down the stairs into the bar.

"I've only worked here a couple of weeks Aldrea. Jeez!" Rachel said, heading towards the backroom. "C'mon over here and meet my boss. Jake, this is Aldrea, I told you about her coming with me."

"Yeah, hi Aldrea."

"Hi Jake," said Aldrea, beaming up at him. "I'll be well behaved I promise."

Jake smiled. "That's good. Um, I don't know where you wanted her to hang out," said Jake. "I guess she can hang in the break room, or sit at the lonely end of the bar."

"I wanna sit at the bar!" Aldrea grinned, knowing that this idea would bother her mother. Jondy deserved it, making Aldrea do her homework while she was at Crash.

Rachel hid her exasperation well and conceded to Aldrea sitting at the bar. "No alcohol though!" she joked, punching the girl lightly on the shoulder. Aldrea laughed and trotted over to a dark corner to people watch.

Games of foosball and pool were going on, which Aldrea monitored with interest. She sighed, not wanting to admit that her mother was right. Going to work with her was panning out to be rather boring. Half-heartedly Aldrea took out her journal and began to record the progress of a pool game taking place across the room. A sassy African American woman was dominating the table, while her friends joked and rooted for her.

Suddenly Aldrea became aware of someone breathing down her neck. She gasped and spun around on her barstool to find her mother leaning over the bar. "How's it goin' girly?"

"All right," Aldrea replied, glancing back to the group at the pool table. "Aw, the lady over there lost."

"Yeah," Rachel noted. "I hear she's been running it all night too. So, you've resorted to actually doing your homework already, I see."

Aldrea turned away from the two former pool opponents, who were now kissing, to glower at Rachel. If that weren't an 'I toldya so' Aldrea didn't know what was.

"Only three more hours left!" Rachel grinned, moving off to help customers, leaving Aldrea to entertain herself by spinning on her stool. Thank goodness her mother only worked one other shift this week.

After becoming sufficiently dizzy from her stool spinning exercise, Aldrea went back to watching the group by the pool table. One member of the group had left, and the two women who had been playing pool before were now immersed in one another, as a skinning looking bald kid, and a greasy man in a yellow shirt opposed each other at the pool table. Neither of them could play well at all however, and the game was proceeding slowly. The woman who had lost in the last game made sarcastic remarks about the kills of the two players, some of which Aldrea thought were pretty funny, and others she didn't understand. She recorded them all in her journal anyway, figuring she'd get a better grade for having more detail.

Eventually the group relocated themselves to a set of manhole cover tables, as the two females left together. Aldrea sighed. She had been getting sick of watching them anyway. She repositioned herself so she could see a television and spent most of the rest of the evening watching dirt bike crashes.

"How did you like my job?" Jondy asked, as they arrived home after work.

"I thought it was super boring," Aldrea told her, kicking off her shoes. "I don't know how you stand it."

"Well, it can be pretty entertaining," Rachel defended. "Anyway, you must be beat. Off to bed Kiddo."

"I'm going."

"At least I'm sure you got a lot done on your assignment," noted Rachel, suddenly feeling motherly, and wanting very much for Aldrea to do well in school.

"Quite a bit," Aldrea yawned as she climbed into bed and pulled the covers over her head. Jondy smiled, leaning over her daughter, she placed a kiss on the patch of light brown hair that was showing above the blankets.

Aldrea's eyelids drooped as the hip-hop music continued to pulse around her. Tonight was the last night that she would have to join her mother at work, and she was grateful. While it was interesting to see what her mom did, Aldrea was bored. This truly was an adult environment, and after spending three shifts observing it, Aldrea was now positive that she never wanted to grow up. All the did was talk, drink beer and play pool. Boring. And yet, even as boring as this place was, it was packed with people. Aldrea didn't get it., and she yawned again.

A woman a couple of seats down turned to her. "What are you doin' her Kiddo?" she asked.

"How did you know that was my nickname?" Aldrea responded, suddenly jolted out of her sleepy reverie.

The dark-haired woman laughed. "Just a guess. But you must be bored in a place like this."

"Yeah, it's pretty boring," Aldrea agreed. "My mom works here, and my babysitter's out of town."

The woman smiled with her mouth closed and nodded. "That sucks. How much longer are you here for?"

"About another hour. Then I don't ever have to come back again!" Aldrea proclaimed, a rather large grin finding its way to her face.

The woman laughed again. "Well I'm glad Kiddo."

"You seem very happy," Aldrea observed.

"Really? How can you tell?"

"Well, you keep laughing, and your eyes smile."

This elicited more laughter from the woman. "Have you ever had anyone write a poem about you?"

"No."

"I never had either. It's a very odd feeling, to know someone has written about you. Put thoughts on paper about you, you know?"

"Well not from experience obviously," Aldrea pointed out, "but I can imagine anyway."

"Yeah," the woman said, suddenly holding out her hand. "My name's Max."

Aldrea shook Max's hand. "I'm Aldrea. There's a boy in my class named Max. Most people think it's a boy's name."

"Well you've got a pretty unusual name yourself Aldrea," smiled Max, lightly faking a punch to Aldrea's shoulder.

"I know," Aldrea explained. "I just know that most people think Max is a boy's name, but my middle name is Maxine, so I don't' think your name is too weird!"

"Hmm, Aldrea Maxine. Nice name."

"Te-yeah right!" Aldrea laughed. "I'm named after a fictional character, who happens to be an alien, and a dead person. But you know, a lot of people don't really like their names."

"I like mine!" Max said defensively. "And I named my- I mean, I'm named after a dog."

"That's pretty weird!" said Aldrea.

Suddenly Rachel's figure alerted them from behind the bar counter. "Hey Kiddo! C'mon, it's time to go home."

"Okay," Aldrea looked to Max. "It was nice meeting you."

"You too Aldrea," said Max, as she got up from her stool and began scanning the room for her friends. "You have a good night Kiddo."

"So who was that you were talking to?" asked Rachel as they left Crash.

"Just some lady," Aldrea replied.

"Oh, well did you have more fun tonight then, having someone to talk to?"

Aldrea sighed, suddenly eager to get home to her bed. "I guess."