Winter Moon – Mindy Gledhill

Year 50

Their Sunday morning routine had been the same since they were newlyweds. Wake up, mess around, shower, church and then get waffles at Sunday morning breakfast. Jackson remembered the first time he ordered something other than waffles at Sunday breakfast. April nearly had a coronary. They liked it this way because it was easy and it was familiar.

"Good morning! I'm Amy and I'll be taking care of you today. Can I bring you something to drink?" She asked the family kindly which at that point consisted of Jackson, April, Graycin and Emily, Erin and Scott and bun in Emily's oven.

"I'll have coffee, black please." April ordered.

"Same please." Jackson ordered since he was next in line around the table.

The rest of the kids ordered a mixture between coffee, tea and an orange juice for Colin. It was normal.

The strange part was when she came back around with the drinks taking the food order. April ordered waffles and so did all of the kids, except for Colin who ordered french toast. He was always the oddball of the family. One of those kids that refused to eat a hamburger with anything other than ketchup and liked his cereal dry. It was just always hard to feed him. But even he stuck with the same Sunday morning order for all of those years.

"Oh Sir, I missed your order. What can I get for you?" The bubbly blonde waitress asked, checking her note pad. She skipped him.

"I'll have eggs, hash browns, bacon and whole wheat toast please." He ordered, gaining stares from the rest of the family.

The waitress didn't notice for obvious reasons, even though she had served them so many times before. "How would you like your eggs cooked?"

"Sunny side up please. Thank you." He told her, reaching for his coffee to take another sip as if nothing was wrong. The waitress walked away to put their order in the computer and his family stared at him, baffled.

"Jackson, we order waffles on Sunday." April finally told him, reminding him as if maybe somehow after 27 years of marriage (at that point) he had forgotten that he'd eaten at least 1,431 plates of waffles.

He laughed, suddenly trying to defend himself against waffles. "I know babe, but I wasn't feeling waffles today. I'll get waffles next week."

She looked around at all the kids to see if she was the crazy one, they all looked just as confused as her though. "But you love waffles Dad." Erin reminded him, looking back at her mother for reassurance.

"I do love waffles. But I also love bacon and your mother will never cook bacon because *it's bad for you* he mocks in a teasing voice so I ordered it here. Because I can."

It didn't end there though. The rest of the breakfast was silent while Jackson flipped through the Sunday morning paper and ate his eggs and toast. The kids and April all pushed their food around on their plate, checking to see if he was still enjoying his breakfast. He was. That was the oddest part of all.

Over the years things had changed a bit though. Neither one of them had as much of an appetite anymore, at least not as much as they used to. So to compensate they got one order of waffles with a side of bacon and two cups of decaf coffee. It worked for them.

They went to the same restaurant for fifty years, Bread and Butter. They sat in the same booth, they had the same servers and they ordered the same thing. The only thing that ever changed were the seasons and the date. Every Sunday when they came in they were dressed to the nines for church, looking their absolute best. They spent most of the breakfast talking, while Jackson flicked through the Sunday paper and April read the sales ads. When they were done she took the paper and he worked on the crossword until their food came.

All of the servers loved them. They were sweet, generous and kind. None of them had ever gotten anything but kindness from the couple. Actually they all inspired to be the couple.

The pair walked into the restaurant, hand in hand to find their normal booth. Church got over about an hour ago and they spent just enough time socializing afterward to be read for waffles and bacon. Wendy, one of their favorite servers opened the restaurant doors as she saw them pull up. Jackson shut the engine off and slowly got out of their midsized car. He walked around and opened the car door for his wife, helping her up with his hand and shutting her door behind her.

"Good morning!" She greeted them with her best smile, one she didn't even have to force because they were the customers she was generally happy to see once a week.

"Good morning Wendy," April greeted and Jackson smiled while they were ushered to their table. "How are you? How's the little boy?" April asked her, catching up on the events over the past couple of weeks. They hadn't seen Wendy for a while since they were in New York visiting Erin and Scott.

"He's good. Just a walking all over, I don't think that boy can sit still for a minute. How's the family out east?"

Jackson cut in. "Oh I remember our boys, they were a handful. Weren't they sweetheart?"

She agreed, "Oh yes, absolutely. Little boys are trouble from day one," She winked, smiling up at her favorite server and looking back at her husband's grinning face. Those were the days. They were enjoying retirement and growing old together, just like they knew they would. It didn't mean they didn't enjoy thinking back to a house full of little children. The sounds of a home filled with laughing children playing and crying, and their arguments and making up and everything in between was one of the best sounds they'd ever heard.