Birthday Luncheon

Last month, I submitted a flash fiction entry to a contest by Writers' Advice.  I didn't win, but I did get honorable mention.  I was very happy with that and will continue to participate in the contests.  For a small fee, they'll give you feedback about your submission.  It's worth it to me to have that advice.

I'd posted this before under a different title.  I like this title better.

Birthday Luncheon

 

It really pisses me off when I have to waste my free time feeling bored.    Why do I have to go to family lunches and stuff like that?  No one talks to me, well, hardly ever.  Today we had to go because it’s Nana’s birthday.  I don’t even know how old Nana is!  My father got out of it because he works.  I told my mom I needed to do homework and she said she didn’t want to hear it because it’s Saturday and I can do it tomorrow.  It’s not fair.

At least the restaurant we went to is kind of fun.  It has all kinds of cool things up on the walls.  There’s a really old bicycle.  It has to be ancient because it doesn’t even have any brakes on the handles.  There’s a lot of pictures of people from olden times.  Some of them look like movie pictures.  There’s a really rough looking guy in a big cowboy hat.  He’s laughing about something.  Maybe someone called him beautiful – not!  There’s also a guy wearing a raincoat and a brown slouch hat almost down over his eyes.  He’s really ugly – and old.  There are sports things up there, too – a hockey stick and a baseball mitt.  The weirdest thing up there is someone’s arm sticking out of the wall.  I guess it’s from a dummy model but I wonder why they just stuck an arm up there?  Where did the rest of it go?

My mother and Nana yakked across the table while I looked around the room at all the cool stuff.  Brian kicked me under the table.  I stuck my tongue out at him but he was pointing to something over our heads.  It was just an old airplane.  So, what.  He was trying to tell me something but I wouldn’t look at him.  Brothers are so stupid, especially the older ones.  They think they know everything.

I was bored so I grabbed a dessert menu off the table and opened it up.    At first, I didn’t understand why all the desserts were in tall float glasses and then I realized that this was a drink menu.  I didn’t want Brian to know that I made a mistake so I kept looking at it just long enough to be able to put it back down without getting all embarrassed.

When I looked up, I saw the waiter standing by Brian’s shoulder.  He was writing and Brian’s mouth was moving, telling the waiter what he wanted.   I tapped my mother on the shoulder but she was still talking to Nana.  Why didn’t she tell me the waiter was there?  I tapped her again but she held her hand up. I hate it when they do that.  They don’t ever bother to talk to us and they expect us to just sit there and be polite.  I tapped her again, harder.

“WHAT?” my mother signed to me, looking exasperated.  “What do you want?”

I fingerspelled: “S-p-r-i-t-e.”