Looking Longingly at Each Other Through Multiple Timelines
Haunted House | Pickpocket | Pancakes
Tommy stared at Frederick. Frederick stared at Tommy.
“What. Is. That?”
It was 1958.
It was 2020.
It was 1982.
It was a full stack.
It was an empty stomach.
Tommy extended his butter knife for emphasis.
“What? Who?”
Before that it was normal. It was like any other stack they’d shared. After all, a full stack shared was cheaper than two half stacks unshared. Everybody knew this, times are tough, times have always been tough, times will always be tough.
Rich people tend not to frequent IHHOP.
Frederick said, “I always loved you.”
Frederick said, “I will always love you.”
Frederick didn’t say anything. He simply lifted the top pancake and that’s when they saw it.
The face of Tommy’s ex-lover. It was horrifying. It looked delicious.
They were hungry.
The waiter apologized, said this kind of thing tends to happen around here. He patted his pockets, confused, brought them another full stack. On the house.
Tommy’s ex-lover re-presented himself.
Frederick said, “who invited him?” to Tommy, as he ate a bite.
“Pass the butter,” Tommy’s ex said.
They loved each other just as they always had, in all their timelines, their births, their deaths, their marriages of convenience - of inconvenience.
The waiter said, if they ate him, he’d never come back.
The International Haunted House of Pancakes went bankrupt two or three times but it had never closed.
Lovers are reported to have kept it open.
Tommy paid with money swiped from the waiter’s pockets.
Frederick was stuffed.