Dying for Dinner

“Fred Gardner, the music teacher? You bet I knew Fred. Everyone in town knew Fred. I played in the high school marching band back when he was the director. Clarinet. If it wasn’t for Mr. Gardner…” MaryA

“Learned to love music from that man,” she said. “And I passed that on to my kids and my grandkids. This is Jacob, my grandson. He can’t wait until he’s old enough to play in the same marching band as his gra

“I’m sure.” I was. MaryA

“Fred?” MaryA

“Then maybe you can tell me…” I’d made a copy of the picture of Monsieur-younger and thi

She took the picture out of my hands and looked at it closely. “No way!” She’d already made a move to hand the picture back to me when she took another look. “But you know, it looks like…” She turned the picture this way and that, her eyes narrowed.

“I’ve lived around here for a long, long time,” she finally said. “That picture there… that looks like an older version of one of the boys I went to school with. He sat next to me in Mr. Gardner’s music class one year…” A lightbulb went on inside her head. I could see the glow of it in her eyes.

“Norman Applebaum,” she said, handing the picture back to me. “Can’t say for sure, but it looks a whole bunch like him. We graduated together from William Allen High. Class of ’67. My goodness, I haven’t seen Norman in years. But I do recall hearing something about him.” Again, she stopped to think. “That’s it!”

Someone called to her and MaryA

“He went out to Las Vegas. Yeah, that’s what I heard. He went out to Las Vegas years and years ago. Last I heard, he came to a bad end out there.”

Ten

I HAD STARTED OUT ON THE SLIPPERY SLOPE TO A LIFE of crime. I knew it, and I wasn’t at all comfortable with it.

I guess that’s why, that night as I slid a copy of the William Allen High School class of ’67 yearbook across the bar at Bellywasher’s, my hands shook just like they had back at the Allentown Public Library when I swiped the book.

Yes, I said swiped. As in filched, purloined, lifted, (gulp) stole.

“I’m going to send it right back,” I said, even though Eve and Jim hadn’t asked where the book came from or what I was pla

Jim kissed me on the cheek. “You’d make a terrible criminal. It’s one of the things I love about you. That, and the fact that I never have to worry about the bev naps going missing.” He held up one of the little square napkins that were stacked on our bar and every other bar in America. “You’d take one to wipe up a spill and buy me a case to replace it.”

I wasn’t just reinforcing my position when I answered him. I wanted to make sure Jim wouldn’t think less of me now that he knew I had felonious tendencies. “But I really am going to send the book back.”

“As well you should.” Jim skimmed a hand over the cover of the book. It had been a busy night at Belly-washer’s and he’d taken a break from helping Marc and Damien clean up after the pub closed. There was a smudge of something chocolate across the front of Jim’s white apron. “This yearbook is more than forty years old.” He said book the way he said cook and it speaks to how upset I was that I hardly even noticed (hardly) the little thrill that raced along my skin at the sound of those delicious, long o’s. “There probably aren’t many yearbooks left from back in ’67. No doubt this book is valuable to the people in that town. Even more valuable to all the alumni.”

“It’s a one-of-a-kind treasure.” Eve joined in, as serious as I’d ever seen her. “In fact, I just heard something on the radio. There’s been an all points bulletin issued. They said something about being on the lookout for a gourmet-shop worker with curly hair. They said she’s shifty.”

That’s when I realized they were teasing. It helped. A little. So did the vision in my head, the one of me taking the yearbook to the post office first thing the next morning, putting it in an overnight envelope, and sending it right back to Allentown where it belonged.

Before I could do that, though, we needed to get down to business.

I told my conscience to shut up and flipped open the yearbook to the section where the seniors’ graduation pictures were prominently displayed. The photos were arranged alphabetically. It didn’t take long to find Norman.

I didn’t need to ask Jim and Eve to take a gander. Even before I poked my finger at the black-and-white photo, they bent closer for a better look.

While they did, I bit my tongue, the better to keep my opinions to myself. After all, I’d had three and a half hours in the car with the William Allen High School yearbook, and in those three and a half hours-the yearbook open on the front seat beside me-I’d had plenty of opportunities to glance over at the picture of the young man with shaggy hair and wearing a Nehru jacket.

“So?” I’d waited long enough. I wanted to hear what they thought. After all, that was why I’d pilfered the yearbook in the first place.

My impatience didn’t stop Eve from peering at the picture a while longer. Jim did her one better. He took the book over to where an overhead light shone directly above the bar cash register. He stared at the photograph of Norman for a long time before he shook his head.

“That’s the hell of it, isn’t it?” he said. “A person changes a great deal in forty years. I’ve seen pictures of my own mum from way back then. Wouldn’t even know it was her if she didn’t tell me.”

I was hoping for something more conclusive, and I guess my expression gave me away, because Jim handed the book back to me. “There’s a resemblance, sure enough. If you add more than forty years, and more than forty pounds, and a whole lot of gray to his hair… yeah, this Norman fellow might look like Jacques. But if it’s really him…”

“Let me see it again.” Eve reached over and grabbed the book out of my hands. She wrinkled her nose. “Yeah,” she said. “It’s him. For sure. Maybe. Or maybe not.”