Chloe explained that the sharp sound bothered him, so the staff had stopped using it during his visits. I remember smiling and thinking how thoughtful they were. At twelve, Leo began talking about an elderly customer named Mr. Howard.
“Mr. Howard likes me.”
“Who’s Mr. Howard?”
“He drinks coffee, Mama.”
Chloe laughed and said the man drank about four cups every visit. Leo immediately corrected her math when she joked that he was thirty percent caffeine. We all laughed, and I thought nothing of it.
At fourteen, Leo came home almost thirty minutes late smelling like coffee and fryer oil.
“What were you doing?”
“Helping Marcy, Mama.”
“With what?”
“Sugar.”
He walked upstairs without explaining. Chloe laughed and told me Leo had reorganized every sugar packet holder in the diner because the colors had been mixed together.
“They were mixed, Aunt Chloe.”
“Apparently pink beside yellow violates international law.”
