Author’s Note: I wrote THE DINER and never thought I would write a follow-up. But people asked so I wrote a followup THE DINER- CONCLUSION. And I truly thought that was the end of the story. However my characters would not agree and their story continues. So cross off CONCLUSION in the title to the 2nd chapter. On to the 3rd!
THE DINER- 15 YEARS LATER
The Diner is eternal! It seems locked in amber. It had not changed one bit in the 15 years since the two women had last been there, except the waitress was 15 years older, and she was no Spring chicken back then!
They met in the parking lot, with a quick perfunctory hug.
“Hello Carrie, how are you?”
“Doing better everyday Tina,” thanks for asking.
“Well my condolences to you and your daughter,” said Tina. “I was really shocked when I saw Bob’s obituary. Cancer?”
“Yeah, it was pretty tough there at the end. But it’s been 2 years now so the good memories have replaced a lot of the sadness.”
The women entered the Diner and went back to their old booth. But, they couldn’t agree on which booth was THE booth. They laughed. Memories were playing tricks on them.
When they were seated and the coffee had been ordered Carrie asked, “When did you and Steve split?”
“I’ve been single for about 4 years now. Dated a nice guy for a while but I’m really really single now. But I have Terry, who just turned 22, and she visits often so I’m not lonely…yet. What about you? Are you dating?”
“Haven’t dipped my toe into that water yet. An almost 50 year old widow is not the most sought after commodity these days. However Mandy is almost 24 and thinking about getting engaged. Look at me, mother of the bride to be.”
The women chuckled. Yes they were near 50 now and not 35, but they were still both startlingly attractive. Carrie, always the glamour girl, now had her long blonde cut into a bob that haloed her face quite stunningly. Tina’s hair, still cut boyishly short, now had some flecks of sliver peeking out. She was still the cutest girl around. But both had put on 10-15 pounds or so and were not quite as athletic looking as they were when they had fought.
Tina asked, “Did you ever fight again?”
“There was one fight. A gal who I had absolutely no trouble beating. I probably hurt her a bit more than I should have. It was stupid to do that. Should have eased up and let her quit but she was a bit stubborn about that so I had to convince her. I felt bad.”
“The victory didn’t make you happy?”
“Bob was ecstatic, but I could have cared less. Too easy. And then Bob got sick so that was my last fight.”
“What about you Tina, any fights after our’s.”
“Not really. Steve really went off the deep end with his catfight fetish. Part of the reason I divorced him. He set up another fight for me and I agreed to meet this other woman and she was like 5’9 170 pounds and some sort of amateur body builder. Our meeting lasted about 5 minutes before told her ‘I ain’t fighting you, Godzilla!. See ya!’ I suspect that Steve got truly twisted around mentally and wanted to see me lose. It was odd.”
“But I’ll tell you, I wrestled my sister a couple of times. Just fun, recreational workout stuff. Rolling around mostly. If you remember she was the only person I told about our fight. She even asked me if wrestling with her was like the fight against you. ‘Not even close!’ I told her. “
“A funny thing happened at work,” replied Carrie. “One of the young guys there asked me if I ever had a rival. I think he was a dude with the catfight gene. I lied and told him I had a rival but it was a long time ago and I don’t remember. He pushed me for more, but I cut him short. He would have loved the story about our fight but I wasn’t going to oblige.”
“OK Carrie, fess up! Let’s cut to the chase. After 15 years why are we back here? Not just to catch up, right?”
Carrie, reached for her purse and pulled out a white letter sized envelope, slightly crumpled. “Well about 3 weeks ago I finally got enough courage to start to gather some of Bob’s clothes to donate to The Salvation Army. In one drawer of his bureau there was this envelope hidden below a bunch of sweaters.”
Carrie handed the envelope to Tina. On the envelope was simply written “For Carrie.”
Tina opened the envelope. Inside was a picture and a note. The picture was of Tina and the note was from Bob to Carrie. It was written with a very shaky hand by someone with not long to live.
It read:
Sweetheart,
Go ahead. Make the call. Do it. I know you want to. I know you can win. I’ll be rooting for you from wherever I am.
Love, Bob
Tina looked up from the note with wide eyes. “Oh my,” she said.
“The big dope is still trying to get me to fight, even after he’s dead! Imagine that! And yet, he’s right. I want to. Hardly a month goes by where I don’t think about fighting you again. Not only do I want it, I need it. I need to feel your strength against mine. I need to feel the risk. And I hate to say this I need to feel the satisfaction of hurting you.”
There was silence for a while and then then the brunette spoke.
“As the winner of our fight it was never my place to call you and ask for another. That had to come from you. When and if you were ever ready for it. But deep down I sort of knew that some day you would be asking for the rematch. So when I got your email last week, although it didn’t say anything besides ‘getting together,’ I knew what it was about and got nervous as a school girl on her first date.”
“Yeah, right now sitting here in front of you my stomach is doing flips,” replied Carrie.
“I assume that you want another go,” said Tina.
“Correct!”
“Well then, make it official.”
Carrie Laughed. “OK Tina I officially challenge to fight me, woman to woman, your strength and courage against mine to establish who is the better woman.”
Tina drew a deep breath. Her skin tingled at the challenge. “Accepted. May the better woman win.”
So unlike their very first meeting at The Diner where neither woman would definitely commit to a fight, now both woman had quickly agreed to renew their rivalry.
“Same rules?” asked Tina.
“Actually I’ve been giving that some thought, and I would like to up the ante,” replied Carrie.
“Really? What do you have in mind.”
“Well first off I think we should allow punches to the body. Still just slapping to the face, but fists now to the rest.”
Tina did not reply straight away. She spent some time thinking it over. Well, she surmised, Carrie was making the challenge and Tina did not want any alibis about the rules if she won again. She could probably punch just as hard as the blonde, so what difference did it make.
“Agreed,” said Tina. What else.
“I think we should fight nude.”
“Are you saying that pussies are now in play?”
“Yes,” said Carrie. “It’s a fight. I lost last time because of your knees. I want to pay you back for that. I want to be able to hurt your pussy anyway I can.”
Tina shuddered at the thought. But that’s what they both wanted. To hurt the other woman.
“Well I guess I’m going to have to make an appointment to get waxed. It’s jungle down there!”
Both woman laughed. “Tell me about it,” said Carrie.
And so the women had agreed that their second fight would include body punches and pussies as fair game.
Carrie then asked, “What about seconds? It would be too dangerous to fight alone. We really do need someone to assist like Bob and Steve did.”
Tina thought for a moment. “We could ask the girls. I would love to have my daughter in my corner.”
Neither woman had ever told their daughter about the first fight. It’s a secret that they had held close for 15 years.“That would mean that we would have to tell them about our first meeting. Are you ready to do that?”
“I think so. It’s a conversation that I’ve wanted to have with Terry for a long time. It might help her to understand why her father and I broke up.”
“Yeah, I don’t like keeping dark secrets from Mandy either. Let’s each talk to them and ask them to help.”
Carrie continued, “I suggest we wait 4 months until. Time to give us a chance to get back into shape. I’m at least 15 pounds overweight and stopped working out when Bob got sick. And I never started up again. This will motivate me to get back to it.” Obviously the blonde had given this some thought.
“I’m in no shape either, Carrie. Just got lazy. 4 months is a good idea.”
Things were now set. This trip to The Diner was about over. But Tina had just one more thing to talk about with her rival.
“Carrie, our first fight was cruel and depraved. And we both had a hard time rationalizing how fierce it did get. But the fact remains that I enjoyed hurting you. I relished it. But the fight made me feel so alive, even when I was on the receiving end. So I think we should stop beating ourselves up over it. It is going to be awful, again. It is going to be horrid, again. Guaranteed. But it is what we want. So, no regrets, OK?”
“Well put Tina. I agree. If we are going to do this again we have to get past the idea that we can fight and do it nicely. You have been the better woman in my mind for 15 years. I plan to rectify that. And I will give you 100%. No regrets.”
The two adversaries headed out to the parking lot. They did not hug this time. They simply shook hands. As Carrie was climbing into her car she turned to her rival and said, “Be ready Tina, because I know I will be.”
And as Carrie backed her car out and turned for the exit from the parking lot, Tina, who was still standing near her car did something that shocked even her. She caught Carrie’s eye and gave her the finger. Carrie quickly responded in kind.
“Fucking bitch. See you in 4 months for sure,” Carrie muttered to herself.
