Marie was sitting at a table towards the middle of the restaurant. She was ogling the menu looking for something to fill her stomach. Then Logan sat down next to her in the small booth. A perky blond young waitress with breasts bigger than her brain came over to take their order.
“Heya honey, what would you like,” the waitress saccharinely aimed at Logan, which pissed Marie off.
Without missing a beat, Logan didn’t look up at her at all as he continued to stare at the menu.
“I don’t know; ask my fiancée, I’m still looking.” Marie turned on her telepathic ear…
‘Like I give a shit about what she wants. Maybe I’ll spit in her food. I bet I could blow his mind real good,’ the waitress thought as her nose bent out of joint but she turned to Marie anyway.
“And for you?” The sweetness all dried up.
“We’ll have two plates of the all you can eat ribs, with beans, cornbread, and coleslaw. We’ll have two root beers and for desert we’ll have the apple pie with whipped cream. And if I find spit on mah food ah’ll make sure you get fired, sugah,” Marie spoke in a bitchy Roguey kind of voice.
The waitress held her tongue. She turned and stomped off to the kitchen. Other patrons stopped eating and stared at the little scene.
“So what was all that about?”
“Ah hope you don’t mahnd ah ordered for us. She was fixin’ to spit in mah food and ah won’t stand for it.”
“Nah, do what you want. I couldn’t decide anyway.”
Sometime later, they still hadn’t gotten their meal. The bus boy had brought their drinks. The Wolverine began to growl inside Logan. The smells were driving him crazy. Finally, the waitress came out with their plates of food. Everything looked okay, hell, it looked delicious. Once they started chowing down, they realized looks could be deceiving. The ribs were over cooked and too fatty, the coleslaw had no sauce on it, and the beans were cold. The cornbread was too dry and cold. They didn’t receive drink refills which were included in the price of the soda. No one brought them more ribs for the all you can eat portion of the meal. The Wolverine wasn’t happy and neither was his mate. So, at his request, Marie went to the little cowgirl’s room and Logan went for his own pit stop. Then Marie went out the ladies’ restroom window. And when Logan decided it was time, he went to the counter where he filled out a comment card. Food unsatisfactory he crossed out and wrote in, food quality sucked. Where it said service quality, he wrote service sucked. And at the bottom of the card he wrote, not paying for meal. He walked out before the waitress caught on that they’d skipped out on her and didn’t leave her a tip. Marie was waiting inside the Suburban for him because he’d slipped her the keys. Soon they were back on the road. He pulled into a MacDonald’s and they ordered something to fill the rest of their appetites.
The Chain Gang
Canadian, TX.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
11:00 A.M.
Logan held the steering wheel between his middle and index fingers while the other arm was busy draped over Marie’s shoulder. It was late and his girl was sound asleep. They were headed to The Chain Gang, a restaurant with a bar in the back in Canadian, TX. He was going to take her to see some old friends that happened to be on the underground fight circuit, Vern and Alice Turner. He remembered them from that session that he’d had with Xavier a while back. They were the ones that helped him get the truck, the one that got him back to Canada after leaving Stryker and later again after he lost his memory. Somehow, he had ended up back in Canadian and they helped him get the truck, camper, and trailer with his bike that he had when he met Rogue in Laughlin City. The truck was an old one of Vern’s that Logan rebuilt the engine on. Said Logan could have it for $500, as is, if he rebuilt the engine. And Alice’s cooking wasn’t to be missed. The kind of cookin’ you’d drive across the country for because you had a craving for a certain item. Vern and Alice had one son, Denton. He was all grown up now. Logan had seen him as a baby. He was named after the city where his mother went into labor while on vacation with his father.
The black Suburban with tinted windows pulled into the parking lot of The Chain Gang. The place looked deserted, which was odd for a restaurant during the day. There was one old white, beat up Chevy truck parked in front of a sign that read, ‘Warden Only.’ He parked in the slot next to it. He remembered The Warden and The Missus, because of Marie and Chuck. He wondered if they still owned the place. Logan killed the engine and looked down at a sleeping Marie. She’d fallen asleep somewhere between Springfield, Missouri and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
“Come on, wake up,” he softly spoke.
“Huh? Where are we?”
“Hey sleepyhead, we’re in Canadian, Texas.”
“Ah slept through a whole state?”
“A few actually, but who’s counting? I want you to stay here. I’m gonna go check this place out. Something doesn’t feel right.”
“Ah’m hungry. Ah’m gonna make a sandwich with what we’ve got left in the cooler, you want one?”
“Sure. Keep the doors locked.”
“Will do,” Marie voiced before she pulled her legs up under her and then climbed up through over the seats into the back of the SUV.
Logan got out of the truck and locked his door before he slammed it closed. He put the leather jacket on that Marie had been holding in her lap, just to look a little more dangerous. He walked around the corner to the front of the building, to the front door. The restaurant looked pretty empty. Only a few truckers sat at the counter on rotating seats, having coffee and discussing routes. Once inside, he went to the right towards the bar. The door to the bar was open to his surprise. People used to pack the place and it was standing room only, Logan recalled. Now it looked like the whole establishment barely had enough patronage to keep open. He walked up to the bar and took a seat. A man in his thirties came out from the stock room to the right of the bar area. His scent was faintly familiar. He did look very much like what he assumed Vern looked like in his thirties.
“What can I getcha?” the man said as he eyed Logan.
“What happened to this place? Used to be packed around here,” the man continued to polish stout glasses from the dishwasher under the counter.
“Word got around that we were serving mutants alcohol,” Logan’s eyebrow went up.
“Nuff said.”
“You’re not from around here…” The beer was quickly gone and the processing began.
“Just passin’ through. Listen, are the Warden and the Missus around? I gotta see them, it’s important.”
Logan could tell that the man wasn’t happy. His adrenaline began to spike and his nostrils began to flair. His hands began to itch between the knuckles; the animal ready to teach the man a lesson. The man looked away and sighed.
“The original Warden is in the hospital. He had a heart attack last week. He’s okay, but the Missus is with him. He retired ten years ago. I am the Warden now. Name’s Denton Turner.”
The animal relaxed and went back behind the adamantium door. Logan was taken aback, but not too surprised by time. The baby boy he remembered in Alice’s arms was now a man.
“Name’s Logan. I was once called The Wolverine. Your parents are old friends of mine.”
“Wait, dad mentioned someone that the patrons used to call The Warden’s Guard Dog.”
Logan growled at him, unhappy at the comment.
“Sorry, probably was said when you weren’t here to hear it.”
“Listen, I’m just passin’ through. I wancha to have Alice call me at this number. Any time, day or night. I have somethin’ important I need to discuss with her. Tell your dad to get well, because I said so.”
“Sure. I will when I see them tomorrow during visiting hours,” Denton spoke as he popped the small napkin Logan wrote on in his pocket.
“Thanks and thanks for the beer,” Logan said as he tossed a U.S. one hundred dollar bill on the bar. “Keep the change.”
Then Logan went back to the Suburban and Marie was missing. She’d locked up the vehicle which was good but she forgot to tell him where she’d run off to. Just as he was about to go check out the restaurant, Marie came into view with a bag and a couple of hot something in Styrofoam cups. He hit the automatic door lock to open her door.
“Everything okay, sugah?”
“Where you been, Marie?”
“Now don’t be mad. Ah changed mah mahnd. Ah thought it was gettin’ close to lunch. Ah ran around into the restaurant and got us somethin’ to eat. Ah needed to stretch mah legs.”
“Just let me know next time,” he did sound a little upset by the tone he heard in his voice. “Still got that food?”
“Yup, raht here,” she voiced as she bent forward, retrieved the bag she had under the blanket and between her legs. “And coffee too. Leaded, black for you and sweet tea for meh.”
“Okey dokey.”
Logan killed the warm sandwich and took a few minutes to process what Denton had told him. Vern had a heart attack. He wondered if he should try to sneak into the hospital to see him and Alice before they hit the road again to California. Then he looked at Marie and decided that he should continue on to the Golden State and hope that Alice would call. They could stop in and see them on the way home.
Albuquerque, NM.
4:30 P.M
Marie was getting a little bored so she reached to the back seat and grabbed her backpack off the leather covered seat. She had grabbed a c.d. she’d transferred music onto from a couple of old mix tapes she’d left home with. She’d grown up with the music being played around the house from time to time and she’d sung along as a kid. She slid the c.d. in and as the music came on she felt the flood of memories attached to the songs come back. Her mood shifted to something darker and the tears began to form. Marie hit the eject button before they could fall. She quickly put the c.d. away in her bag and tossed it back to the back seat.
“What was that all about, you okay, darlin’?” Logan’s concerned voice called out to her as she was staring out into the early evening on the other side of her window pane.
“Yeah, ah’m fahn.”
“No, you’re not. C’mere.”
Marie went to him over the center console. He wrapped his arm around her and held her tightly. She tried to get comfortable on his shoulder. Logan began to hum something and the vibration in his chest made her sleepy again. She couldn’t form a thought as to what he hummed, but it was pretty. She had no idea that he was humming the last half of Surrey with the Fringe on the Top, from Oklahoma.
Pilot Travel Center
Flagstaff, AZ.
10:30 P.M.
The animal was happy he was back on the road after such a long time away. Now all he needed was Molson, a woman, and a damn good fight; not necessarily in that order. He had the Molson in the back and Marie asleep on his shoulder… Where was he going to find a fight to let out some pent up energy in the near middle of Arizona? He didn’t really know the area and he didn’t want to stir up the anti-mutant brigade. He pulled into the parking lot of a well-lit Pilot Travel Center. Trucks were parked off to the left like horizontally stacked Lincoln Logs and fuel pumps to the right. The main building, alive with fast food kiosks and half-awake truckers and travelers heading to destinations unknown on the left. A half dozen aisles filled the center of the main building, stocked full of tourist trap kind of stuff. You could get yourself a teddy bear keychain and a shot class with the state of Arizona screen printed on it. T-shirts and DVD’s were against another wall. In the back behind the aisles were the refrigerators with drinks and snacks of all kinds. Off to the right held the hall to the showers, pay-as-you-go internet service, and the television room.
Logan decided to go in and take a leak while Marie slept. He leaned her against her window and covered her up with a throw from the back seat. He locked her inside the vehicle and went inside. There, he grabbed a basket and started hunting for anything they needed. He grabbed a few of those touristy things for Jubilee and Kitty because he knew they collected items like them at the school. It would save time of having Marie get them something and he’d let her give them away as if she picked them out. Because he was the Wolverine and he had a badass reputation to uphold. He wouldn’t be caught dead with kitschy things like Jack Skellington bobble head dolls, stuffed animals, and pansy movies like 27 Dresses. He grabbed some food for dinner and paid for everything before he went off to shake hands with the mayor. While in one of the stalls, two men came in the men’s room and they happened to be talking about the underground mutant fighting circuit. Not the one Logan remembered but, a better organized one. Well hidden from the authorities. There was going to be a fight after midnight in Kingman, Arizona. That was at least two and a half hours away. Funds were getting tight, but they had enough for one last gas fill up and a room for the night. Logan decided he could use a night of rest in a bed with Marie. She’d done some driving, but he’d done the majority of the driving.
He liked it that way because then Marie could keep him fed and happy. When he did sleep, it wasn’t restful. He would startle himself awake but he made sure the claws didn’t pop and scare Marie. They could end up in a ditch somewhere. Like they almost did back two hours before they reached Flagstaff. Marie decided to slide down that little zipper on the front of his jeans and make him a very happy man. Even the animal inside his mind behind the strong door sat back in a leather covered chair and propped up his feet with a great cigar stub to smoke. Logan hurried up and finished in the stall before he washed his hands on the way out. Then he went back to Marie sitting patiently in her seat with a light throw blanket over her lap and the seat belt over that. She hit the open switch before he could get the key in the door. He climbed in and closed the door.
“Ah missed you, sugah,” she leaned over and wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a hungry kiss.
Logan was surprised but quickly warmed to her passion and kissed her back. She tasted good. Then he remembered the fight and he began to put the brakes on the great kiss that would end up with her nude, wrapped around him in the back seat in the middle of the Pilot parking lot.
“Darlin’… Mmmff… Darlin’ we’ve got… Mmmff… To stop…”
“Why?”
“Cause… Um… There’s an underground fight in Kingman, Arizona after midnight and we need funds to keep going on this road trip,” Logan spoke as the animal mentally kicked him in the head for turning Marie’s advance down.
“Oh, how bad are we?” He started the engine after buckling in.
“We’ve got enough to get us there and a room for the night but that’s pretty much it.”
Soon they were back on the road and Marie went digging through the bags to see what Logan bought. She found the food he’d bought and opened one juicy burger for Logan. Then she rewrapped it so that he was able eat it while holding the wheel. She then tore into hers with one burger to spare for Logan.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Hi All,
Yes there is an X-Men Santa, Virginia...
Here's another update!
I hope you like it! In the next chapters update, the animal will get to play! And we like it when the animal gets to play don't we?
Enjoy!
Yes there is an X-Men Santa, Virginia...
Here's another update!
I hope you like it! In the next chapters update, the animal will get to play! And we like it when the animal gets to play don't we?
Enjoy!
Chapter End Notes:
Please enjoy and know that there is more in the works... With a return of our favorite cousin Lara and her hubby Frank. Let us know what you think!