Any Bit Of Town Gossip Could Be Heard At The Breakfast Bee

Somewhere On The Coast In Maine

Gray days are a standard in Maine in the spring. Today, the TV Weather Jerk announced, "Tuesday had promise." It was just after 6 AM, and the morning sun pushed through the light fog.

The Breakfast Bee opened at four like it did every day for the last one hundred and eleven years.

Everyone loved The Bee for its roasted coffee, softball-sized blueberry muffins, reasonable prices, and saucy, life-worn, weather- and cigarette-beaten waitresses who held their jobs for many years.

By 6, the early bird workers, truck drivers, lobstermen, and tradespeople had already been to The Bee. Their boats had left the bay for deeper Atlantic waters, and the seafood trucks had reached Boston halfway.

Each day, people who have known each other all their lives share many cross-table chats, sports chatter, and weather observations. It is noisy chit-chat even though all eyes are on one form of screen or the other. The weather has been the favorite topic for all 111 years since so many locals' lives depended on it.

The Bee is a flawless ballet of motion sights, sounds, and smells performed by pros. Five waitresses went from spot to spot, taking orders, dropping off heaping plates of food, and topping off coffee cups. A single busboy moves fast, clearing and setting tables as customers stand to leave.

Natalie Leuze sat at a two-top tucked away from the thoroughfares past the kitchen's swinging doors.

The actress used her phone to review yesterday's Dodgers and Redsox box scores. She then checked the web for mentions of herself.

#NatalieLeuze always found something, but the item that popped up the most was a meme comparing how she looked now to how she looked at age twenty. It is the worst kind of clickbait, and whoever put it together found a photo that made Natalie appear like a yard sale catcher's mitt. It is genuinely unfair because Natalie is still strikingly beautiful at forty.

In Maine, anyone would have to look twice at her to realize who she is. She is "All Hollywood with six Primetime Emmy Awards."Some would whisper, "Isn't that Gina from the TV show Stanley's Girls?" "What is she doing in Maine?"

The waitress interrupted Natalie's thoughts when she came to the table, dropped off food, and topped off her coffee. The server deadpanned, "It looks like the Sox are back on a slide to last place." "Tampa is killer,"

Natalie thought about it and added, "They always drop games to them, Toronto and now even Baltimore."  "The AL East is a brutal division again, with or without the Yankees." The TV star continued, "Boston needs more pitching as usual."

The waitress, no stranger to ball talk, was impressed with Natalie's acumen about New England's team.

"Can I get you anything else?"

Natalie piped up and said, "No, I'm all set, and you can drop the check whenever you are ready." "Thanks for your usual awesome service."

The waitress replied, "Happy Monday, " she moved on with the always steaming pot of coffee.

Somewhere On The Coast In New England

Today, my old bullet-riddled mobile home in Ocean Front Fog Horn Estates is about to be replaced with a modern double-wide. I saw no sense in moving from the area. I feel so lucky my life landed me here.

I have grown to love this location: the crisp smell of the ocean at night, the proximity of a coffee shop around the corner, and the mansions to the right and left of us, filled with people who hate the park and the people who live there. It's nice to be a thorn in someone's ass. That's part of the reason we are staying. What does that say about me?

Eve, too, loves the location. She has fantastic taste, so she picked out the new trailer and all the accessories. 

We are standing together while the riggers use a crane to lift the old unit onto a flatbed. She held onto me and lowered her voice a bit, saying, "Allston, five years ago, if anyone told me I'd be living in a trailer and loving it, I'd ask them, where did I fuck up?"

I started laughing and replied, "You fucked up when you met me."

I added, "You could not beat this location for the price when I bought it, and it makes sense. I can't speak for you, but I don't live to impress anyone and am not much into entertaining."

​"We end up here at the end of the day, and I love being here with you." "I don't care about impressing others either."

The foreman started twirling his upraised finger, and the old home rose. The riggers' speed in getting it on the truck and tying it down is incredible. In thirty minutes, it was gone.

I'm sure the bullet holes made it more aerodynamic as the crew whizzed up the highway.

Tango, a bit perplexed, stayed close. Our possessions are placed in an on-site portable storage unit, which would also be gone today. Tango's collection of driftwood sticks lay near that box.

This is an event in the park, which has been here since the 1960s. Many of the neighbors have come out and are in good form. It is the first new installation in 20 years.

"Allston, how long before you kill more terrorists in the new home?" asked Jim Traister, our neighbor.

Two hours later, after lunch, the truck arrived and placed the shiny home at a better angle so we could see the Atlantic. As workers lowered it into position, Eve asked, "Is the home going to be on top of the money?"

"It's already buried where the old deck used to be ." "It will be under the new deck."

Life is sweet. Eve and I are eight hundred thousand dollars richer, and I did not charge Sophie for the job of contending with trained killers.

I think Tango and I will take a few days off.

Somewhere On The Coast In Maine

Eating her breakfast, Natalie thought about how she ended up in Maine. First, she divorced her husband and sold her Malibu beach cottage, then headed east to rethink her life.

The divorce was rough, and Nat had a lot to think about. She thought the change would be therapeutic, and a quiet, non-celebrity lifestyle appealed to her.

When she got to Maine, she found a small oceanfront farmhouse in a remote location that was easy to fix. Natalie got right in the groove of things. 

She learned to love the Sox, complain about the weather, and spend a ton of money at the donut place that is everywhere in New England.

To stay busy, she started a foundation that donates money and school supplies to poor communities like the one she grew up in, Kentucky. Later this morning, she had a video meeting with a group of potential corporate donors. She smiled and thought about how her name opened doors with some of America's most well-known CEOs. 

Last year, her foundation donated over six million dollars worth of school supplies and gift cards from clothing shops to kids in need.

This different life had more meaning. Her life will be perfect When the Sox start to turn things around.

When the bill came, Natalie didn't even review it. She handed the waitress $30.00 and thanked her for the excellent service again. All the food servers knew Natalie was an above-average tipper, and they took turns taking care of her each day.

Natalie is still trim, firmly breasted and quick on her feet. She scooped up her phone and small purse and glided toward the exit. Every guy in The Bee saw her heading for the door, but they didn't say a word if anybody recognized her.

That is the Maine way.