Chapter 16,

The first official stop was a country diner. Leo had no clue where they were. Of course they had been trying to get to a diner. Jack didn’t seem to mind which diner it was, and the others didn’t seem to care. Leo cared. Leo was lost.  The original Purpose of the trip was to Sample some of the best pie in the country. Jack had apparently made a list of restaurants and diners known primarily for their pie. Regardless however of the Intent Leo had become lost. Jack was not bothered by this, he simply pointed to the first diner he saw and called it the first stop. In reality it was the second stop (the first stop actually being a gas station off of the highway). But this was the first official stop. It naturally didn’t actually matter. Small diners always have good pie. They had to; it was one of the unwritten rules.

 

There was, of course, a philosophy, made popular by the Beatles (and Hippies) that suggested that there is no where you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be (it’s easy). The concept was simple enough. Wherever you were, you were. Therefore since all other possible scenarios were obsolete at that point (since you couldn’t be anywhere else at that moment) it stood to reason that the only option was that this is where you were meant to be.*  Jack’s philosophy was similar, it was, simply: wherever you were, you were. Whatever was was. Jack didn’t like to attach any real meaning to this because in his view, there wasn’t any. It was just reality. It was obvious.  So in Jack’s mind, the first place they decided to stop (officially) was (officially) the first stop. This was not intended to be deep or meaningful. In reality he was simply hungry, and was beginning to get grumpy. So he simply pointed to the first diner he saw.

 

There was only one problem. The problem was that this particular diner at this particular time had run out of pie. Shortly after this revelation, the Juke box, apparently on its own accord, decided to give a demonstration of its content. This in itself would not have been a bad thing, had its content not have contained a certain afore mentioned song by afore mentioned band. In short, Jack was “Thunderstruck” on an empty stomach, with little sleep, and no possibility of pie. **  It was at this point that Leo began to choke on his country fried steak.

 

               

He moved his hands over his throat. No one noticed. He tried a more obvious gesture. Still no one noticed. He tried turning blue. Still there was nothing. So at last, begrudgingly, because he knew the fuss it might cause, he threw himself dramatically on the floor and began to flail.

 

Anne was the first to notice.

 

“I think he is choking,” She looked down at Leo as he started writhing obscenely on the ground “either that or he is trying to break dance”

 

“Isn’t someone going to do something, he’s turning blue” this was said by Sarah.

 

“Of course.” Jack was poking despondently at his waffles. “He just gets really mad if you save him too early. It ruins his near death experience. He does this kind of stuff all the time.”

 

“Well, someone needs to do something, people are starting to stare.”

 

Jack gave Leo a kick, “Are you ready, I’m not giving you mouth to mouth. I swear if this isn’t serious I’m going to leave you here. This has been a very long day.”

 

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*    A concept which depth is directly correlative to the amount of mind altering chemicals one has taken.

*      * There is a theory that any juke box will randomly play several times an hour unpopular or annoying songs so that people will be obliged to put money in the juke box to prevent it from playing any more songs randomly.