Agnes scratched her head with her pencil, slipped it into the bun on the back of her head, and reached in her pocket to count out her tips for the night. “Yes, Arthur, Mickey’s still here, still waiting for Delores.”
“Well it’s late, and we both have to be in extra early tomorrow, prepping for that tourist bus coming through for breakfast,” growled Arthur as he did a final scrub of the kitchen grill.
Mickey held up his empty soda glass and smiling, called out, “Another Pepsi, please, and four quarters for a dollar so I can load up the jukebox for when she comes in?”
“You gotta give him credit for faithfulness,” Agnes smiled as she shuffled over to refill his glass and give him change.
“I give him credit for delusional thinking,” Arthur muttered and added “It’s been twenty-five fuckin’ years since she left him.”
© Liz Husebye Hartmann (2021)
*The challenge? Write a story in 6 sentences, no more & no less, and if you’d like, share your creation or just visit and comment on others’ ideas, with GirlieOnTheEdge, Denise. The prompt is “QUARTER”, and here’s where you join the party: Six Sentence Stories
Valley of the Trolls 
I was young when they had Juke Boxes that still took dimes. Now I think you have to put in a dollar for one song. Well unless your at a diner in the Twilight Zone! 😀
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Ka-ching!
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Compassion seems to be a feeling all but disappearing. I find this a sad story, yet on another level, uplifting. Go Agnes! 🙂
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Life: both bitter and sweet. Contrast makes it a delicacy…
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There’s a thin line between home and obsession…..
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Indeed!
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your Reply to ceayr expresses my impression of this Six quite well, thank you!
… serially, it may expose my more charitable streak to say, Agnes is a kind women and Arthur’s a bit of a dick… (to his credit, he muttered)… but what the hell does a person gain by inflicting (or, at minimum, reminding) another person of a painful aspect to their world.
…all of which is a compliment: Engaging Six!
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One might see Arthur as a realist, or a simpathist for a guy who hurts himself in the name of love & devotion. Or, he could be a bit of a dick. Anywise, watching all that for 25 years?!
Glad this 6 evoked, as it entertained!
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I like your description of faithful waiting.
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Thanks. It may be that in his case, faith is just a tributary of De-Nile.
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Ooh, that hurt! Because it’s so realistically portrayed. I can just see this happening and the people concerned. And that comes from really good writing.
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Wow, thank you, Jenne!
And playing with online writer friends helps me to approach that.🙂
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I think Mickey is maybe slipping a little something under the counter into that Pepsi when no one is looking. Poor guy 😦
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(I saw what you did there…Mickey Flynn)
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I guess he’ll be waiting another twenty-five years if he’s spared. A touching tale Liz.
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Thanks, Keith!
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Ouch, what a walloping of an ending! Good one, Liz. I wonder if Mickey has been selecting the same old songs through those long 25 years?
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As much as he can hold on to!
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Can’t decide if this is funny or sad, Liz, but it is nonetheless a sharp insight to the human condition.
Your dialogue is spot on.
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Life and love is usually a mix of both, eh?
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