Part one
Ronny Racer was the town oddity. She observed him in the cafe once in a while. He was peculiar but Norma liked him. he was sweet and thoughtful. A big kid really. He made people stop and stare as he stirred powdered creamer into his coffee. The stuff, even the lawyers at Osgoode Hall wouldn’t touch, she’d overheard one day.
Ronny lived alone with his all gray cat named Rocky. At least it was another heartbeat in the place Ronny guffawed to Norma as she served him coffee in his old beat up silver thermos
Christmas loomed.
She’d seen Ronny a few days before and wondered if he would get a turkey dinner. he wasn’t interested in the local church dinners, besides his brother had invited him out to his farm outside of town.
Norma tucked this in the back of her mind wondering what other single would be doing that Christmas.
Later she dropped into local initiative for marginally house people. An older woman in a penurious state was trusting the Lord for daily provisions of food donations to keep the place a float. Someone had given her a store front cheap that had a kitchen. They made stews and pies, and sandwiches that were sold cheap to homeless guys. It helped defray the cost. While she would have liked to put on a Christmas dinner unless someone donated a turkey, that would not happen. Many of the townspeople did not like the soup kitchen so near the theatre district. Local churches wouldn’t help. not their ministry. not not their mandate.
Ronny would drop in for a bagel sometimes. He always paid the fifty cents. he avoided food banks, surviving on his disability. He managed. He did however get cat food from the local pet help store donations. really good quality stuff, he wanted to give Rocky.
That morning he left for his brother’s place. Norma watching him unlock his racer. He was an enormous man. Rambo style headband shoved over unruly shoulder-length graying blonde hair. He had a funny grin with missing back teeth. As he waved goodbye, Norma ran up a prayer.
Suddenly a very pleasant looking man came in He was dressed in tan slacks, a doeskin jacket and what looked like Hush puppies. She was surprised when he aid he was a transport driver. He did not fit the Smokey and the Bandit profile.
She had thought he was a courier of some sort, when he looked through a clip board with bills of lading. Norma was on a break so sat in a back corner, every once in a while catching the man’s eye. Pete the cook, also saw the interchange and raised his eye brow, nudging the prep kid in the corner.
Finally the man brought his breakfast and sat at the table next to Norma who teased him saying if he sat there he would have to do the dishes.as that area was staff only
They soon fell into a conversation. She discovered his name was Dan, who lived in Peterborough. He did runs from the states east from Michigan to Montreal He was on a layover, would sleep till five then drive all night to Quebec. He made her laughed when he wondered if people from Michigan where called Michuginas.