It was a cool night for late spring. John Arra’s stomach growled. There was nothing worth eating in the fridge. So he drove into town. The only place open was Beau\u2019s Diner. It had once been his favorite place. Beau and his wife Belle always greeted him with a smile. But Covid wore them out. They were bought out by a food conglomerate and John Arra lost interest in going there. He shrugged, parked the car, went in and sat at a table. He noticed the $9.95 dinner special featured on a chalkboard easel: Pea Soup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A waitress approached. Her hair was dyed with rainbow colors and she was obviously wearing fake eyelashes. Her lips and boobs seemed unnaturally swollen. She raised her pencil-thin eyebrows at John Arra in greeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said, \u201cI\u2019ll have the special.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lickety-split she returned from the kitchen and set a bowl full of water in front of him. She reached in the pocket of her smock, pulled out a pea, and plopped it in the bowl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere,\u201d she said, \u201cPea soup. Enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* * *<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An old man, looking like he hadn\u2019t had a loving human touch in years, maybe decades, shuffled up to the microphone. Even though he was squinting, anyone could see that his eyes were dead, but they darted from person to person in the crowd in front of him. Had to be the Aderol, they all thought simultaneously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe American principle that no one is above the law was reaffirmed,\u201d he said, his voice tinny and his tone shrill. \u201cDonald Trump was given every opportunity to defend himself\u2026The jury heard five weeks of evidence, five weeks. After careful deliberation, the jury reached a unanimous verdict\u2026 They found Donald Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s reckless. It\u2019s dangerous. It\u2019s irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don\u2019t like the verdict.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pea soup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* * *<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John Arra stood up, staring at the waitress. He pulled a ten-spot out of his wallet and laid it on the table. \u201cKeep the change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut the sign says $9.95.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat sign\u2019s been there since Trump. We\u2019re short-handed, so no one\u2019s changed it. The price is $13.95 now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John Arra fished four ones out of his pocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He left with his stomach growling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pea Soup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* * *<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For a two-page PDF statement of where Way Out Charlotte Pike is coming from, please <\/em>CLICK HERE<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n john.arra@wayoutcharlottepike.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was a cool night for late spring. John Arra’s stomach growled. There was nothing worth eating in the fridge. So he drove into town. The only place open was Beau\u2019s Diner. It had once been his favorite place. Beau and his wife Belle always greeted him with a smile. But Covid wore them out. … Continue reading “Pea Soup”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayoutcharlottepike.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayoutcharlottepike.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayoutcharlottepike.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayoutcharlottepike.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayoutcharlottepike.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1246"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/wayoutcharlottepike.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1523,"href":"https:\/\/wayoutcharlottepike.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246\/revisions\/1523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayoutcharlottepike.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayoutcharlottepike.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayoutcharlottepike.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}