Fog hovered in the air early Sunday morning as a beat-up Oldsmobile pulled through the parking lot of the Midnight Diner. 

“Are you sure this is the spot?” Abe asked, looking over at Lena.  Lena was on her phone again, browsing Instaface or Snaptalk, Abe could never remember the names of those “apps” as Lena called them. 

“Lena?!”

Lena glanced up through a set of hanging curls, “Yeah, yeah, this is it, sorry gramps.”

Abe turned down the radio.  It was that morning show Lena liked, Elvis something or other.  Whenever Lena put on this Elvis character Abe would remind Lena, “There will only ever be one Elvis to me!  THE King of Rock and Roll!” 

Sometimes Lena would let Abe listen to his oldies, but after one or two songs by The Four Seasons or ol’ Blue Eyes Lena would go right back to that morning zoo. 

“It’s pretty crowded for this time of day.” Abe pointed out. 

Lena looked out the windshield and saw that the lot was nearly full. “Well, like I said it’s supposed to be on some food channel show.” 

Even though this place was good enough for the TV, it was still a diner and Abe hoped that didn’t mean crappy food. Though he has had plenty of crappy food in his day.  You eat some crappy food when you’re in some third world country fighting a war that has no end in sight.  What did matter to Abe is the time he gets to spend with his granddaughter. 

The Oldsmobile swung into the first handicap spot Abe saw and he cranked the sedan into park. 

Using the door as leverage, Abe pulled himself up, out of the car.  “Hold grandpa…”  Lena quickly stowed her phone in her back jean pocket and rushed over to the driver’s side door.  “Let me help you.”  Abe obliged, swapping his cane to his far hand and let Lena wrap her arm in his. 

“My God,” he thought, “She’s nearly as tall as me…soon she’ll be the one driving us around.”  In fact, that would be happening sooner rather than later.  Lena hadn’t told Abe yet but she was scheduled to take her learner’s permit exam next spring. 

The Midnight Diner had a classic diner feel to it.  The outside of the diner was a glossy red and blue that shined when the sun was out.  The windows were lined with metal trim and to cap it all off, a large marquee rested on top of the entrance. 

As Abe was escorted inside by his granddaughter, they passed a framed picture on the wall of that idiotic blond haired guy who’s on the food channel.  “Look, Gramps,” Lena pointed out.  “You see, this is definitely the right place.”

Entering the diner, a short, bald man greeted Abe and Lena.  He wore a button up shirt with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and a thick golden chain nestled in his chest hair. 

Abe couldn’t help but wonder how a man who has so little hair on his head could have so much on his chest.  With regard to hair Abe was one of the lucky ones, through a wife, three children, five grandchildren, oh, and did he mention that war he fought in, he still managed to have a full head of hair.

“It’s always these Eastern Europeans that run these diners,” Abe muttered out loud.  “Damn Greeks and Turks.”

Though the portly host didn’t seem to hear Abe, Lena whacked him in the arm, “Grandpa, that’s rude!”  Abe chuckled at the idea of his teenage granddaughter scolding her 72 year old grandfather.  The host held out his hand as the international sign of “follow me” and lead the two to a bright red vinyl booth. 

As they were led to their seats, Abe couldn’t help but notice one strange thing…where were all the people?  The parking lot was nearly packed but most of the tables remained empty. 

Abe looked over to the large, hairy man, “Seems pretty empty, you guys have a party going on in a separate room or something?”

The host just grunted and nodded in what Abe perceived as him agreeing with Abe’s question.

As the two sat down, Lena noticed Abe was starring off into the distance.  “You okay, Grandpa?”

Saliva nearly dripped from Abe’s mouth.  “My goodness, look at that…”

Lena took a peek over the booth and saw an older waitress walking behind the counter.  “Eww gramps, keep it to yourself.”

Abe sat in a trance.  “Boy, I’d love to have a slice of that…”

“Oh, come on grandpa, I’m gonna tell grandma!”

“No, no…take a look at that pie.  That cherry pie!  I think I’ll skip breakfast and go straight for dessert.”  Abe chuckled as he settled in to the booth.  “So, how’s school been? Still have that teacher…Mr. P was it?”

“No, gramps, I haven’t had Mr. Pike in years.”  Lena cautiously looked over Abe, inch by inch, inspecting him exactly like her grandmother does.  Lena reached a hand out to Abe.  “Grandma gave you your medicine today, right?”

Abe smiled.  It overjoyed him that Lena cared so much for him.  “Come on now, do you really think grandma would like me leave the house without them?  Anyway, let’s get to the important business.  Do you have any boyfriends yet?” 

“Well, kind of.” Lena reluctantly said. 

This got Abe’s attention.  “Oh really?” he said as he peered over the top of his menu.

Lena began to blush.  “Yeah, well he sent me a request online and I accepted, soooo yeah.”

“Online?  On the computer?”

“Yeah…” Lena responded hesitantly.  She could already see where this was going.

Abe scratched his graying hair.  “That was after you two went on a date…in person?”

“No grandpa, that’s not how it works these days!” Lena insisted. 

“That seems strange to me.  I’d like to meet…what is his name anyway?”

“Jonathan.” Lena said quickly.

Abe laid his menu down.  “Well I’d like to meet this Jonathan.  Have I ever told you about the first time I asked your grandmother out?”

Lena sat in silence waiting for one of her grandfather’s stories to begin.

“It was two months after high school graduation – class of ‘67 – your grandmother was still in high school of course, I think she was a junior, and I had my eye on her for weeks.  She had to have been the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. 

“One day I was getting out of work and it was raining cats and dogs out.  I saw her walking home in the rain, she was drenched, and I just went right up to her, handed her my umbrella, and told her exactly how I felt.  I said ‘Why, Ms. Watson, you must be the most beautiful girl in the world, would you go out with me?’  She said yes and I walked her the entire way home in the rain.  I say it all the time…that was the best damn decision of my life.”  Abe began to tear up.  It wasn’t until a few years ago that he had gotten so emotional – it must have been his old age that brought on the flurry of emotions.  Damn emotions.  Damn old age.

“Excuse me,” an Eastern European accent interrupted the sweet moment.  “Are you ready to order?”

Abe looked over to find a waitress standing at the table’s end.  Her hair was pulled back tight in a ponytail and her high cheek bones accentuated her strong jaw line.  Her eyes glazed over at Abe and Lena looking through them, not at them. 

Lena responded first, “I’ll need some more time.”

Abe got a little annoyed, “Yeah, we haven’t had a chance to go through the menu yet,” Abe paused for a second. “But I will take a cup of Joe and a slice of that cherry pie to hold me over.”

The waitress turned around and strode behind the counter towards the freshly made pie. 

Lena decided to steer the conversation as far as away from Jonathan as she could.  “So grandpa, did you marry grandma before being sent off to war?”

Abe leaned forward, forgetting the menu in front of him.  His glasses magnified the intensity shining in his eyes that seemed to appear anytime Vietnam was brought up. 

“No.” he said flatly. “We went to see a few pictures together and fell in love…By the time your grandmother graduated high school the draft was put in place.”

Lena had heard this story before, but she loved the passion her grandfather still spoke about her grandma – it was certainly something she hoped she could one day find in life. 

“So the day I left home,” Abe continued, “I knelt before her and promised her that when I made it back, we would get married….”

“Is that when you gave her one of the ribbons off your uniform?” Lena asked.

“Yes!  In fact it was!” Abe said, laughing to himself.  “I didn’t have a ring with me so I ripped a ribbon off the shoulder of my uniform and tied it around her ring finger.  She wore it every day until I got back home six years later.”

“That’s so sweet, grandpa.”

“Yeah, she thought so too…little did she know I got torn a new one when my lieutenant saw my uniform was ripped up on my first day!”

A piece of pie and cup of coffee was tossed in front of Abe.  “Here…” the waitress said with her thick accent.  “I will be back to take your order.”

Lena watched the waitress make her way to the kitchen.  “Boy, she either hates her job or is in some type of trance.”

Abe nearly spit out his first chunk of pie at Lena’s comment.  He really couldn’t believe how quickly Lena seemed to have grown up.  It felt like it was just yesterday that she would come over to Abe’s house and dance around to his old records.  Now she’s accepting relationship requests on the computer.  In fact she was around the same age Abe started to eye Lena’s grandmother…  “So tell me about Jonathan,” he asked.

Lena began to stutter, trying to figure out a way to avoid talking about boys with her grandfather until she found her saving grace.  “Eww gramps! There’s a hair in your slice!”

Abe was taken aback.  “Wh-what?”  It took him a few seconds to process what she had said.  Abe surveyed his pie carefully until he finally noticed a long, curly blonde hair popping out of the far side of his slice.  It couldn’t have been the waitresses, she had straight black hair.  Abe simply pulled the hair out, tossed it on the floor and took another bite of his slice.

“Gross!” Lena uttered. 

Knowing that Lena was somewhat trying to distract him for asking questions, Abe smirked and said, “So, you were about to tell me about Jonathan.”

“Not now, grandpa, I think I’m gonnna barf.  I have to go to the bathroom anyway.”  Lena rested her napkin on the table and scurried off to the restrooms.

The waitress came up to the table, pencil and pad in hand when she realized Lena was not there.  She immediately dropped her pad to her side and stormed back off.

After finishing up his slice of cherry pie and cup of Joe, Abe wondered what Lena was up to.  It had only been fifteen minutes or so, but Abe had a funny feeling in his stomach.  He looked around for their waitress and she was no where to be found. 

Seeing Lena’s cell phone sitting on the other side of the table, Abe was briefly tempted to pick it up before coming to the realization that he probably wouldn’t even be able to turn the damn thing on.  Instead, Abe decided to stand up, leaning on his wooden cane. 

“Hello?” he called out.  He didn’t see anyone nearby, not even the portly host.  However, once on his feet, the cup of coffee hit him like a brick and he shuffled towards the bathroom on the far side of the diner.

After taking care of business, Abe could have sworn he heard banging on the wall…or was it screaming?  He thought it must have been his head – that happened every now and then.  The new generation called it PTSD.  He simply shook the noise away and continued on. 

While passing the women’s room he thought about Lena and jiggled the handle.  It was locked.  Abe knocked on the door with his cane.  No response.  Maybe she was back at the table already.

As he made his way back he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the window and wondered where the years had gone.  Sometimes he felt like a teenager in an old man’s body.   

Another thump rang out from the direction of the restrooms, calling Abe back over.  He tried the door one more time.  Still locked.

“Grandpa!” Lena’s voice called out.  At the sound of Lena’s voice, Abe’s military instincts kicked in and he threw his shoulder into the door.  

While Abe talked about the war, he never went into what it was like IN the war.  It was usually a complaint that went something along the lines of Blah, blah, blah damn war or Blah, blah blah ‘Nam.  Either way, he didn’t want his family, even his wife, to experience what he had gone through.  But what Abe learned early in his time as a military man is that he was born to be a soldier. 

At the height of his military career, Abe was sent behind enemy lines to assassinate enemies of the state.  He was Martin Sheen in ‘Apocalypse Now’ before ‘Apocalypse Now’ was a thing and had succeeded in all of his missions.  That is, except one.  It would turn out to be Abe’s last turn in Vietnam.  The high-ups referred to him as “The Devil in Disguise” as they went over the details with Abe.  This devil amassed thousands of followers near the border of Laos, cannibalizing any man, woman, or child that stood in their way.  There were some sick stories that Abe heard about this devil throughout his time in ‘Nam, and nothing would make him happier than to put this crazed animal to rest. 

Unfortunately, Abe never made it anywhere near the Ho Chi Minh trail before getting shot in straight through his knee, nearly tearing up all the cartilage.  Abe was pulled back to home base and eventually discharged.  After that moment, Abe thought he had lost his edge but it was that same military prowess that just kicked in as Abe’s shoulder slammed through the door. 

The door was heavier than he expected but with the help of a little adrenaline it was flung open.  Two stalls and a row of sinks lined the silent bathroom as Abe surveyed his new surroundings. 

Nearly out of breath, Abe lurched through, carefully opening each stall door.  At the sound of one of the stalls slamming shut, Abe jumped and spun around, crashing his cane into the side of it.  His cane snapped in half, falling into an empty stall.  Abe took a sigh of relief at the sight of the vacant toilet.    

Abe thought about dropping the other half of the broken cane to the floor but the wood had splintered nicely into a sharp point.  “Nice dagger,” he muttered.  He flipped the cane around to more of an attacking grip and slowly approached a closet door that peaked open across the way.

With his body up against the door, and his newly made spear in hand, Abe swung the door open hoping to take anybody behind it by surprise.  What laid behind the door was nothing like he had ever expected.  Dead bodies lined the floor of the large closet, all leading to a set of steps going down. 

Another scream carried up the steps. 

“Whoever did this must have Lena…” Abe said to himself as he inspected each body.  The bodies were so pale, they were nearly translucent.

Before Abe could make his way to the stairwell, the closet door shut behind him.  “Are you ready to order now?” rang an all too familiar voice.

The torches along the wall lit the waitress as she approached Abe, adding a glow to her silhouette.  She looked much younger than she had earlier. 

Out of nowhere sexual urges surged through Abe unlike anything he’s ever felt.  He’s seventy-years-old for goodness sake, he shouldn’t be having these urges!  His body was slowly being pulled towards the waitress like two attracting magnets.  Abe fought the emotions, not sure what to make of the waitress.  “Where’s my granddaughter?” he demanded, wooden spear in hand. 

At the sight of the weapon, the waitress dropped the seduction act.  Hissing at Abe, she dropped to four legs, contorting her body like a spider.  Abe stumbled back, nearly falling at the sight of this.  Her limbs bent in ways that they shouldn’t have been able to. 

Abe felt that cherry pie charging back up from where it came from.  “Oh God, I think I’m gonna hurl…”

Within a few heart beats she lunged through the air.  Abe was able to just side-step the waitress’ attack.  “What in the world!” he cried out.  Large, sharp fangs glistened in the torch light.  Darkness had filled the waitress’s eyes and she had become more beast than human.  She looked at Abe the way a lioness eyes down her prey, or as Abe put it, she had blood-lust.  

While Abe was able to side-step the waitress’s initial attack, he was now paralyzed with fear.  He’s fought and even killed in hand-to-hand combat before, that wasn’t the issue.  The issue was this creature who just minutes ago was just his waitress.  While in ‘Nam, you couldn’t second guess yourself otherwise you’d be dead, so Abe shook himself out of his self-provided paralysis and gathered his thoughts. 

In battle mode, Abe jabbed his broken cane into the side of the waitress.  Crying out in pain, the waitress dug her nails into Abe’s face, taking chunks out of his skin.  As blood continued to pour out of her side, the waitress snapped at Abe, attempting to take a bite of him. 

Before she could get a piece of him, Abe promptly pulled the wood out of her side and sent it sharply into her shoulder.  This second hit sent the spider-like waitress to the ground, who began to lick up Abe’s blood that lined the floor.  Not wasting this opportunity, Abe fell on top of the waitress, wrapping his hands around her neck.  The waitress squealed out loud before she was silenced.  Abe quickly snapped her neck as the waitress dropped limp and Abe teared the wooden splint out of her shoulder. 

“Grandpa! Grandpa!” Lena’s voice was even stronger than ever.  “Grandpa! Stop it!” A grandfather knew when his grandchildren were crying and Abe could hear tears in Lena’s voice as she pleaded for help. 

Abe could feel two hands grip either side of his shoulders when his vision got blurry.  His legs weakened and he dropped down to one knee. 

“Gramps, come one.  Snap out of it.”  Lena said more calmly now. 

Abe’s mind snapped back and forth from one memory to another of his time in Vietnam.  These memories have haunted Abe for nearly forty years now.  Abe could hear the faint sound of voice as if they were miles away from him. 

“Someone call 9-1-1!”

“I think she’s still breathing.”

And finally he heard his sweet granddaughter, Lena, pleading for forgiveness.  As if a final slap in the face to a man who gave his life to serve the country, Abe’s vision focused in on his waitress, not any monster, bleeding out on the ground, with a broken piece of wood coming out of her.  Bags of flour lined the floor of what appeared to be a stock closet.  Tears welled up in Abe’s eyes.  They weren’t tears of sorrow, but tears of joy.  He knew he can finally rid himself of the evil that has haunted him for all these years.  His final mission…the devil in disguise was finally defeated and everything faded to black. 

Copyright William Meier Jr. 2021 ©