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Leaving Ava : A short story by yours truly

Leaving Ava

Mama Jay’s Café has been on the corner of Cooper and Commerce since the late seventies. I’ve seen all kinds of folks come and go and grow here. Kristofferson’s mother used to bring him for chicken and waffles every Sunday when he was a boy. This is where he brought Ava on their first date. I remember them when she couldn’t shut up. She’d lean over the table towards him and grab his chin before she’d kiss him. He’d always shake his head and smile as if he didn’t believe she could love him the way she did….but she did. I remember them during the good days. The beginning always hogs the good days. They’d meet here for dinner every Friday after work and after the first month, I tried my best to save them the center booth near the window… The one his mother used to prefer before she passed. He was always early, arriving around 5:45pm to beat the dinner rush… he needed order. She was always late, arriving around 6:15pm panting and apologizing with a bashful smirk. He was tall and thin and quiet but so polite. She was short and curvy with a loud laugh and long hair that she played with when it was his turn to talk. They loved each other by dinner number 4. I knew this because he asked me to bake her my famous pie that holiday. See, I damn near raised him as my own after his mother died and there were never girls before Ava… only his studies... Always his studies. They were married by dinner number 32… He got all of her family and friends to meet them for dinner on her birthday and worked up enough courage to propose in a grand way. The way girls want to be proposed to. With onlookers and a bended knee and all the right words with everyone she loves around her to witness it. Yes, he was a romantic like his mother. He asked me to be there but nobody runs Mama Jay’s the way Corinne does. This place would fall apart without me! They walked past the café that night and she knocked on the window, pointing to her ring finger with excitement and he bashfully shrugged, smiling so big as they kept on. His love was modest then. Like flowers not yet bloomed until a coaxing sun’s brightness.

Ava always brought me flowers on Mother’s Day. When Juney, my son, moved away with his wife, I damn near lost myself. Juney chose to make her happy…. Even if that meant letting Katherine spend his hard earned money on useless things…. Even if it meant erasing me from his life. Can you believe that? His own mother! Kris and Ava kept me straight when I didn’t know how I could continue to be a mother when June pushed me away. Yes, that Ava would have made any mother relieved to have as a daughter-in-law. She was kind and he loved that…We all did. She always kissed strangers on the cheek when meeting for the first time. They’d hold out their hand for a shake and Ava would just wrap her arms around them in a great big bear hug and a kiss on a cheek like they were distant relatives. That girl could make cold hearts beat, I tell ya! The only time I ever saw her frown was when she wanted to take a dance instructor position and Kristofferson chuckled at the thought of her teaching ballet with a pregnant belly…. I’d overheard this conversation and shook my head to myself. Oh Kris…. If the woman wants to dance, let her dance, I should have said! But the last thing I wanted was to make their business, my own. She’d plead with him more than once and he’d always shoot her down…. The baby… it isn’t safe for the baby. He meant no harm; he just loved her and that growing baby. So she continued to work at the library but after they miscarried that child and their 2nd baby, she agreed to just be a homemaker like he wanted and the Fridays with my favorite customers stopped shortly after that. They’d stop by here and there and I always got those flowers on Mother’s Day but things were never the same.

It had been at least five years since I’d last seen them. I owned Mama Jay’s now and was sitting at the end of our bar going over the plans for a renovation when at a quarter to six, a slender, quiet Ava arrived and sat at the old booth near the window. Her hair was up in a bun and she was carrying a gym bag with ballerina flats hanging from one side of them. My girl was dancing again. The waitress handed her a menu and she shook her head politely motioning for coffee. She looked sad, worried. She looked like the world tried to tear her apart but she fought back and won. Ava powdered her nose a little and put on some lipstick, glancing into the window’s faint reflection to double check that she looked decent. Her hand shook as she poured creamer into her coffee and I knew this wasn’t the time to say hello. Kristofferson arrived around 6:10pm. He looked much older and defeated as he made his way to the booth. He sat and stared at her. She did not look him in the eyes when he poured what looked like whiskey into his coffee. They sat silently for what felt like a thousand years before he reached into his bag and pulled out a manila folder and pen. He removed a few documents from the folder placing them on the table and she closed her eyes tightly as if squeezing them hard enough would make them disappear… would make the entire world disappear. When she opened them, they were still there, everything was… there was no escaping this divorce and she knew it now. He began shaking his leg and glanced at his watch twice before filling his cup again. He was running out of time but was gentleman enough to not rush her while she mourned. Ava blinked tears now and twisted her wedding band around her now slender ring finger. He sighed and looked down at his ring-less hand then back at her loyal one… the one who was still holding out… the one still waiting for a miracle that just couldn’t come. Just then a woman speaking loudly on her phone entered the café. She shooed away my waitress like a bothersome fly as she ended her phone call and made a beeline to Kris and Ava’s table. Ava recognized her instantly as she straightened up in her seat, finally looking Kris in the eyes before wiping the last of any tears she would let him see. The woman glared at Ava while she squeezed her and her very pregnant belly in between tables before reaching theirs. With one hand on her hip and the other on her stomach, she pointed at the clock then folded her arms waiting for something to happen or someone to hurry. Ava grabbed the documents and signed quickly then slid them across the table back at an embarrassed Kris who now couldn’t look her in the eyes. She slipped the ring off her finger and left it on the table as well. The woman grabbed the papers viciously and double checked everything but Ava was already out the door by then. Kristofferson stared at the table, lifeless. The woman sat across from him now as she answered another call, drowning out the echoing hurt that engulfed the center booth near the window. He looked up at the restaurant and surveyed it with tired eyes that finally met with mine. We both blinked tears before he was hurried out by the loud woman…. Leaving us all behind with only half of what he always wanted.

#creative writing #short story #missbehavinnn #writer #my daughter has nothing to do with this story i just like her name