He Never Looked Up at Breakfast, So I Served Him Papers novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Seth's Question

Seth's POV

I sat on the cold ground at the foot of her stone with my coat open and a paper cup of coffee going cold between my knees.

Four years ago today, I had been standing at the grill when the fryer caught.

I had told the landlord four times it was failing.

I had told him in writing.

I had still opened the diner that morning, because it was a Monday and the lunch crowd was ninety people strong.

My wife had stepped into the back to change a filter.

I had got to the door before the fire truck.

I had burned my arm on the handle, and two men from the feed store had pulled me back by my belt.

She was in there.

That is the plain fact, and it was in the paper again last week with a question mark on it.

I heard a car door close at the bottom of the hill.

I did not turn.

The footsteps came up through the dead grass, slow and a little heavy, a pregnant woman's steps, and they stopped beside me.

"Dot told me," Elise said.

"She shouldn't have."

"She told me because I asked her to. Move over."

"The ground's cold."

"I taught high school for nine years. I've sat on worse." She lowered herself next to me, one hand under her, and drew her knees up. "Sydney drove. She's waiting in the car with a thermos. She wanted to come up and I said no."

I said nothing.

She looked at the stone, and she read it.

"I'm not going to say sorry for your loss," she said. "You've heard that for four years. I'm going to ask you something instead. Did you light the fryer?"

"No."

"Did you ask the landlord to replace it?"

"Four times."

"Did you know it would fail that day?"

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