Maggie Townsend is at the shop all the time now. My guess is that Carlos assigned her a secret mission: Hold my hand. Listen to my woes. Cheer me up. Make me smile. And she’s good at it. She’s pretty and funny and bops around like a tomboy playing the vamp.
Officially, Maggie has started waitressing here, because Stephanie is undependable. Of course, since the second meeting, with the clear smell of money in the air, Stephanie arrives on time. She stays late. In fact, they all hang around, all the time.
[click here for the first episode and here for the previous one.]
At least Maggie is straightforward. To get my attention, she dips and sways and goes into these pretty little poses, clanging invisible chimes. “Don’t be so hard on yourself,” she says. “‘Trix are for kids.’”
“The topic was loneliness! Everyone was supposed to stand at the mike. Everyone was to speak his mind. And what happens? Carlos gets me off on the best way to approach God.”
“Well I thought you had a point,” Maggie says, her hands suggesting some goddessy maneuver. “Worship like anything else can be a trap.”
“Oh Jesus.” I lay my head on the table. “I was goaded and tricked and the whole thing is too mortifying to think about it.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” she says. “You’re a good speaker and lots of people have never thought about how inherently cheesy traditional worship can be.” Maggie smiles for two beats and then breaks into a musical half-scale laugh, a clear alto.
“All right, but what about all that money? Did Carlos put you and Stephanie through some kind of drill?”
“No,” Maggie says. “It just happened.”
“Yeah, right.” “You didn’t do anything wrong,” she says.
“What does it matter? My idea for a New College of Complexes is finished. It’s dead and buried.”
“Now that’s egotistical,” Maggie says. “Because you hogged the mike, you’re shutting the whole thing down?”
“I’m not! It’s Carlos! He’s the one who ruined it! It was like I was in a trance. The New C. of C. is dead and nothing anyone says or does can resurrect it.”
“How come?” Maggie asks.
“Because I hate Carlos. I hate him, I hate him, I hate him.”
“Oh,” she flashes that crooked little smile, “you think you’re the only one?”
“Okay. I hated Carlos before, but that was nothing compared to this. Now I hate him more than anyone! Now I abominate him in every way.” “Which,” Maggie says, “is exactly what he was going for.”
(click here for the next episode)
