Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico is a hard-bitten little town in the middle of the state without, to my eye, a hell of a lot of point to it. The town is best known for naming itself after a bad game show in the 50’s, changing the name from Hot Springs to its current moniker. The radio show Truth or Consequences did a live broadcast from Hot Springs and the town, in the immediate aftermath, got a whole lot of attention from newspapers and television. So, they changed the name of the town. Media whore-dom to an absurd degree.
Maddie works at one of the nicer restaurants off the interstate…one of the nicest in town. In T or C that means it’s really a rather abysmal place. It’s flat and open and the tables and chairs and booths are cheap, the upholstery is cracked. The menu, though, is seafood and steaks. Not terribly good seafood. Can’t vouch for the steaks but they looked pretty rough coming out of the kitchen so I think probably not works of red meat art. It’s like the place started out as a greasy spoon diner and then had an unforeseen growth spurt into a more refined restaurant and now is in an awkward adolescence waiting for the reality of the restaurant to catch up with its self-image.
Maddie is in her early 40’s and has the two traits that I’ve come to expect out of grown up but not yet old women working in restaurants anywhere outside of LA or New York or Chicago: subtle flirtatiousness, and; a beaten down quality that is simultaneously fascinating and depressing. This may be reflective of my bias in favor of people who are not very skilled at hiding the defeats life has dealt them. I operate under the assumption that once you’ve crossed 30 if you haven’t been on the wrong end of a few divine jokes you are either: a.) lying…and denial is boring, or; b.) plain old boring without the entertainment value of denial.
Maddie has an effortless beauty about her. She wears very little, if any, makeup, is slender and tan and has both smile and frown lines on her face. Her eyes are a tired green, especially on a Friday night when she’s covering the whole floor on her own and not particularly busy. The tips on this night are going to be disappointing. I’m one of the last two tables in the place and she tells me it’s been slow all night. I’m in the best spot in any restaurant if you’re looking for conversation; all the way back one booth away from the server’s station. This means that anyone working in the joint, which on this night is Maddie and a sullen busgirl, will be passing near frequently.
We get to talking in between her bouts of action. Whether back in the server’s station or working the floor she is frequently looking out the windows, scanning the parking lot. At first I think she’s simply hoping business will pick up but something about her anticipation makes me think she’s waiting for someone.
She’s up at the register ringing out a to-go order that’s being picked up when a young man walks in. Even with my lousy eye sight I can see he’s mind blowingly gorgeous. He’s a lanky 6’1”, slender, and even under his light jacket you can tell he’s rippled with muscle…not big, buffed out weight lifter muscles but well-defines long and slender muscles. He’s got a ridiculously square jaw, pretty eyelashes, deep green eyes and dark hair that is an unruly mess. It doesn’t appear to be the fashionably and deliberately mussed hair you see all over the television. It’s more like his hair is rebellious in nature and is going to go in whatever direction it damn well pleases despite his best efforts to tame it.
Maddie sees him and lights up. She bounces out from behind the register and throws her arms around his neck. He responds by picking her up and spinning her around. They have a brief and excited conversation that ends with her taking out her keys, removing two from the ring and handing them to him.
Bet I can guess where he’s going. Though he is devastatingly attractive he is young. Really, young…twenty-five tops. I get the attraction but…wow. He’s really young.
I ponder this for awhile, wondering why the older-woman/younger-man thing freaks me out a little when I know full well that if the genders were reversed I’d only think it mildly amusing. I was lost in this analysis to such an extent that I hadn’t noticed Maddie come back to the server’s station.
“Well, my night just got a whole lot better,” she said.
“Good looking kid” I said, putting a lot of emphasis on the kid. Maybe a little too much emphasis on it.
She turned to look at me with a smug grin.
“He sure is. God, he’s beautiful.”
I just nodded.
She laughed.
“His name is Hunter. He’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen and he’s my son.”