PERILS
Chapter Eighteen
Henry and the Doctor could have crossed the Florida state line at Chattanooga but neither of them had any business there, so they turned eastward and crossed at the Savannah River and made their way into Highlands, North Carolina, bypassing South Carolina altogether. Impressed, the Doctor said, "I didn't know we could do that!"
"I know a good place to have a bite," said Henry. "By the way, are you a brother?"
"A brother?" The Doctor tried not to show his bafflement; 1914 American English was in and of itself a foreign language, but he'd been doing pretty well, so far, adapting. If he took the question literally, he could not answer because he had some trouble recalling bits of his childhood; he remembered no siblings. (His mother he couldn't remember at all; he just took it for granted that he'd had one, and a father as well. He sometimes dreamt about having a mother, but he could never quite see her face. He never dreamt about having a father; he could not summon up enough of an image to dream so much as the concept of a father. It didn't bother him. He didn't think about it much.) If he took the question as he thought he should - figuratively - he hadn't a clue what it meant.
"Never mind. Just a thought. Anyway the food is pretty decent at this place."
"Actually," the Doctor admitted, "I have some food with me, but not so much money."
"That's okay," grinned Henry. "My treat!"
The eatery turned out to be a small establishment whose clientele appeared to be all male. This didn't strike the Doctor as odd, especially for the times, since lunch out would almost exclusively be the purview of men – salesmen, executives, lawyers, anyone whose work took them out of the office or whose status allowed them to play during business hours. Women would be home taking care of the kids in a town like this. New York was an anomaly and yet even there the gender disparity would not have given him pause. The brunette waitress, slightly chubby in a pink uniform and armed with an order pad, gave Henry a tiny kiss on the cheek. "What can I getcha?" Now the Doctor looked at her more closely; her voice had a lilt and a timbre only a man impersonating a woman would assume. He smiled at her and she smiled back and took his order (for which he took his cue from Henry): a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich on home-baked bread and a bottomless cup of tea (Henry had coffee).
The Doctor looked around again. The room was seven yellow vinyl booths long, with a ceiling fan making the temperature tolerable. In the farthest booth from the door sat a middle-aged man who was reading a newspaper and snuffing half-smoked cigarettes out, in rapid succession, in the saucer under his coffee cup. Two suited gentlemen at another booth were leaning forward toward each other and speaking in very low voices. The booth nearest the one into which Henry and the Doctor had settled appeared to be occupied by two men who, on second glance, turned out to be women in men's attire. Henry, observing the Doctor's interest in his surroundings, lowered his eyes, then raised them again and stared almost defiantly at him, "You don't mind, do you?"
"Brother," laughed the Doctor. "I get your meaning now. No, I am not a brother, but it's all right. Everything's fine."
They ate their BLTs, the Doctor sipped his tea and Henry gulped his coffee and asked for more. "Driving," he said, through a mouthful of sandwich. "'wake."
"I can help," offered the Doctor. "I haven't driven for a long time, though."
"It's okay," said Henry. "It's about ten hours. We can take turns but I'm good for most of it." He raised his coffee cup in salute and then drank from it. "But when we get there, you're on your own. It'll be late when we arrive if we go right there. My business will have to wait until morning. I was planning to stop in Virginia Beach overnight, but my accommodations are only for… brothers."
"Oh, I see," said the Doctor. "Well, I suppose I can find other accommodations."
"I'm sorry. I could put you in Richmond, of course, where you have a better chance of bumming a ride north."
"I'll think about it. I would love to see those ponies but I probably shouldn't take the time."
Henry and the Doctor finished their lunch (Henry called it "dinner") and Henry paid; the Doctor tried to leave the tip, but Henry insisted that the Doctor hold onto his sparse "clams." Then it was back into the horse van and 10 hours of August heat as they set their sights for Virginia.