Circlefield Mall: "Leftovers"

Circlefield, IL

Circlefield Community College

“Does anyone know what a defense mechanism is?” the professor asked.

Eddy peered from his notebook and looked around the room for a raised hand. The students around him seemed bored to a magnifying degree. He looked back at the professor and studied the way her eyes darted around the room.

“It is the way the human brain deals with anxious thoughts.” The professor continued speaking. “The next chapter in your textbook covers different defense mechanisms. You might recognize some, like projection and repression, but please look out for and take notes on the new terminology that will be, and I know it will be, new to most of you. That's all I got for the day, so I guess we can end class a little early today.”

Silently, Eddy stood up and slid his notebook into his backpack. He scanned the room to look at the other students. The students were also packing up their things and shuffling out the door. Eddy took notice to two students who were leaving together: a girl and boy his age and walking in sync out the door while talking about their date night. She was charmingly strawberry blonde, and he was complexly black-haired. Eddy flicked the bangs from his face and felt them settle back.

Walking to his car, he looked up at the downcast weather: fantastic shades of grey obscuring the otherwise powerful sun. A tornado watch was for sure on the way.

From his pocket, he pulled out his phone and called his mom. She picked up after one single ring.

“Oh my, Eddy! How are you? How was class? What did you learn today?”

“Hey mom. Class was alright. We finished up a little early today, so I’m headed to work right now. How’s business today?” Looking at the building he just left, a sign saying “Circlefield Community College” was written in plain text on an aging brick and plastic obelisk.

“Business has been trickling today, but that just proves my theory that I have the best staff working today! Well, until I get my darling son to start his shift.”

He noticed dents on the sign from a troublemaker from around the area. Campus administrators are still struggling to find them. “I’m headed over right now. I’ll see you in a bit.”

“Bye-bye! Love you, my Eddy!”

Judging from the dents, the assailant must have used a baseball bat. They must’ve had quite the arm since the brick corners were crumbling. The incoming rain will not be doing any favors either.

Eddy started up his car and left the parking lot. He turned on the radio: songs about California girls and looking pretty in motel bars played in the car. Attempting to enjoy it, the music seemed to be noise to Eddy.

From behind the wheel, he watched road sign after road sign until he found the highway. Barreling 79 miles per hour, he headed to his shift at Circlefield Mall.

Circlefield Mall

Eclair Estates: Restaurant Floor

Eddy pulled into the parking lot of the Circlefield Mall’s entrance. Looking overhead was the logo of the restaurant, Eclair Estates. A main attraction of the mall, customers at the end and beginning of their shopping sprees would sit down and have an entree before leaving the restaurant, only to return again. Eddy’s mom says its good for business, but Eddy can’t help counting every single customer as they leave and enter.

He reached into his backpack for his nicely washed apron with his name tag and went into the restaurant. Since he can remember, his mom worked there: when he was a toddler, she was a waitress at Eclair Estates. For the majority of his childhood, she's always been working and dressing according to the employee dress code, which Eddy thinks impacted his own sense of fashion.

Walking into the restaurant’s entrance, he silently waved at the hostess, whose name he had forgotten, and walked to the back of the house. Eddy passed the booth he would do his homework at when his mom got promoted to restaurant manager when he was finishing middle school.

Near the server’s station, his mom was eagerly picking up trays and balancing them along her outstretched arms. A wide smile was as golden as her nametag that shone Ellen C. / General Manager: it still shone as it was recently given to her some months ago.

“Hey, mom.”

“Eddie, sweetie! I’m so glad you’re here, help me get these trays to table 37, this birthday party is hungry!”

Eddy blinked and he was holding 3 trays worth of food: pastas, salads, a medium-rare burger, more items from the menu.

“I’m thinking about giving them a complimentary bottle of champagne too! Now follow me.” Ellen positioned herself upright and waltzed towards the table as Eddie followed. “It’s this family and they’re celebrating the mom’s 57th birthday, I believe. They also have a daughter who appears to be your age! If I was you, I’d strike up a convo, she seems very nice, like a bubbly girl.”

“Oh mom, y’know I don’t really do that.”

“Oh Eddy, it can’t hurt to expand your circle!” she said as she turned to Eddy with a confident smile. Eddy didn’t feel it.

At table 37, there was a large party of people. At the head of the table was a woman with a big “Happy Birthday” button across her blouse. Eddy assumed the middle-aged man by her left was her husband as the young people to her right were her children: two older boys and, sure enough, a girl around his age was sitting attentively listening in on the rest of the table comprised of the mom’s friends.

“Alrighty!” Ellen announced. The party’s attention was drawn to her and Eddy with the trays. “Who ordered the vodka pasta?”

“That’d be me,” the birthday mom said cheerfully.

“Great choice!” encouraged Ellen as she handed out the plates on her trays. Eddie followed suit. “Oh my, you are such a lovely family! So big too, I can barely handle this one!”

Ellen gestured to Eddie as he set the salad in front of the girl. She nodded thank you as she anticipated the grown-up’s conversation to start up again for her to eavesdrop.

“Oh, is he your own?”

“He sure is! My pride and joy Edison, though we’ve always called him Eddie.”

“Yep.” Eddie contributed.

Ellen nodded her head in excitement as continued speaking, “He’s been helping me out in the restaurant since he’s been old enough to! Such a perfect boy.” Ellen pulled Eddie into a hug as Eddie felt an intense blush cross his face. The girl’s attention drew towards him between his mom’s arms.

“That must be so much fun to work with family!” Birthday mom turned to Eddie. “How have you been enjoying it?”

Caught off guard, Eddie sputtered “Uh, I like getting paid. Special treatment is cool too.”

The table let out a light chuckle. Ellen put her hands on her hips as she made a guilty expression. “How about your children?”

“Well, my oldest is in grad school in the city, can you believe it? He’s following his mother and becoming a doctor.” Ellen let out an impressed oh! as Eddie grew uneasy. “My middle child is in his third year of college and he’s studying, uh, neurobiology?”

“Neuroscience, ma!” the middle son said. Everyone did a polite chuckle, and Eddie eyed the table.

“Right! And then my youngest, she’s always been interested in becoming a teacher.”

The girl looked up at Eddie. Even though he gauged her interest, Eddie really wanted to leave the conversation

“Oh my goodness! You won’t believe it, but Eddie’s also looking to be a teacher!”

“A professor, actually.” Eddie elaborates, “I want to publish research mostly but haven’t that far ahead yet.”

The girl pursed her lips as Eddie turned to his mom. His eyes gestured to leave the conversation. Ignoring him, Ellen moved away her anticipation from the girl to the mom.

“Well, she’s been accepted into Berkeley actually! She’s moving out later this week, so it’s a very bittersweet dinner.” She looked longingly at her daughter. The daughter fought back the thought of leaving her mother with a smile. Eddie watched the scene.

“How exciting! My Eddie is in community college right now, but he’s so excited to go to a 4-year soon!” She turned to Eddie, “I know your friend also goes to Berkeley, if you get in then you’ll know two people in your grade already!”

Exiting the convo, Eddie said stiltedly, “Jeez, let me finish my shift first, mom.”

The terrible shared an easier chuckle as Ellen reads his blank expression. “Well, we do have other customers to attend to. But I will make sure to get one of our exclusive champagnes for the table! On the house!”

The table was touched by her promise as the mother-son duo left for the kitchen.

Eclair Estates: Kitchen

“It doesn’t take a lot of effort to talk with people, Eddie.”

“I know that,” Eddie shuffled to the big metallic sink in the kitchen. He hoped the clanging of the pots and the shouts of the chefs would drown out the oncoming conversation. He rolled up his sleeves, grabbed a sponge, and picked up dishes that needed cleaning.

“So what’s the problem?” Ellen stood with her body facing Eddy as he scrubbed dishes from the slop sink to the rinse sink.

“It’s just... superficial, I guess.”

“You’re a smart boy, Eddie. You can explain better.”

Already exhausted, Eddie elaborates, “I don’t really need to be introduced to a family to socialize with people. I’m fine as is.” He placed a freshly scrubbed plate into the rinse sink.

“I don’t think it’s fine to be this antisocial.” She studied him as he picked up a handful of forks, scrubbed them, and dumped them into the rinse sink. “Do you?”

“Do I what?”

“Do you think it’s fine to not talk with people? Do you talk with people in your classes?”

Eddie scraped off the last bits of soggy lettuce from a salad bowl and tossed it into the sink.

“Well?”

“Don’t you have a restaurant to manage? I can handle myself as a dishwasher.”

Mad, Ellen refocused her gaze from her son to her surroundings. “We’re not done talking about this. We’re speaking in the car later.”

“Sure thing, mom.”

Hearing the squeak of her nonslip shoes, Eddie turned off his brain as he scrubbed more dishes. Soon enough, he will wash the salad bowl of the girl and it will once again be another salad bowl to be used later.

Circlefield, IL,

Oakey Dokey Apartment Complex, APT#905

Eddie walked home from the school bus stop. Empty lunchbox in his hand, he entered the code to the apartment building and opened the front door. He travelled up the elevator to the ninth floor, through the halls, and to his family’s apartment.

Digging through the fridge, he found the leftovers in a plastic takeout container from Eclaire Estates his mom got for him after a shift. Bringing over a chair to climb on, he put the leftovers in the microwave above the stove. The plastic was yellow, and the film was peeling.

Waiting for the microwave’s chime, he stared at his fridge. A note from his mom said:

Hi Eddie :)

Working a little later today! I will see you at 6

Don’t forget Daddy’s coming tonight so wash up!

XOXO Mommy

Photos of him and his parents littered the fridge, most of them during Christmas and his birthday. Magnets of all the places his dad travelled held them all up: Las Vegas, Boston, New York. All cities he’s seen on the map in his classroom. Eddie thought it was cool his dad got to see all of them and would love to drive a big truck like him too.

The microwave chimed, and he took the leftovers out and to the living room. It was empty compared to the ones in his cartoons, but it had a TV and a couch where he sat as he flipped through channels.

He ate fork after fork of the leftovers as he waited for his parents. When he was done, he went to the bathroom to wash up. The fluorescent light above the sink made his skin look blue as he washed all the sauce from his mouth.

The sun was setting, and he wondered where his parents were. Concerned, he looked at the landline phone on the kitchen wall, which he didn’t know how to use. On the living room floor, he focused his efforts his homework: multiplication tables, naming 50 states, 15 vocab words.

By the time it was dark, the apartment door made key jingling noises. Eddie watched the door open and his mom spill in the apartment. Her face was red and flushed as her hair was slipping from her ponytail. She headed into the kitchen and Eddie followed. Putting her waitress apron on the counter, he watched her get a glass, fill it with water from the faucet, and drink it.

Glass in her hand, she said with a coarse voice, “Your father isn’t coming today.”