When the man ran into Applebee’s yelling “Help me, help me,” no one got up to help him, and Norman Fletcher just shoveled another spoonful of mashed potatoes into his mouth. He also tightened his grip around the Smith & Wesson pistol in his lap.
The woman in a sundress who was chasing the man burst through the front doors and hurled a pool ball at his head. She had the arm of a major league pitcher. Norman heard the guy’s skull crack when the ball collided with his cranium. He fell face forward, and his bloody head landed just inches from Norman’s foot.
The murder weapon rolled away into the restaurant.
Staring at the body on the floor, the woman in the sundress said, “Damn,” like someone might say after they accidentally knocked over a drink. Two Applebee’s waiters scooted around her, grabbed the dead man by his hands and feet and dragged him outside, leaving a trail of blood behind.
“I can mop it up,” the woman said to the waiters.
“It’s fine. We’ll do it. Are you going to eat?” one of them asked.
“I don’t know,” she said.
This woman with unbrushed hair wearing a sundress in November in Pittsburgh had Norman’s undivided attention. He rarely went out these days, and his occasional trips to Applebee’s often made him sad when he saw couples in the restaurant. Even the ones that didn’t talk to each other made Norman long for a wife. He was eager to experience the joys of marriage because he thought the star might be a sign that things were coming to an end soon on earth.
“The mashed potatoes are really good. Would you like to have lunch with me?” Norman asked her.
She gazed at Norman like she was trying to determine if he was real. The star gave its chosen ones the abilities to carry out the kill, but as soon as the deed was done they returned to normal, left only with the tragedy of their involuntary action.
After a long moment of silence, she finally said, “Okay,” and sat down across from him.
Her green eyes mesmerized Norman. He’d never seen any that were this green. They matched the color of the star, which made Norman think that maybe the mysterious celestial body was up to things other than killing.
“What’s your name?” Norman asked.
She thought about it for a while.
“Susie,” she said.
“That’s a nice name,” Norman said.
“It was Janet, but I just decided to change it. Now that I’ve… Susie feels like a better name for me now,” Susie said.
“Susie’s nice,” Norman said.
“What’s yours?”
“Norman.”
“Thank you for inviting me to lunch, Norman.”
“My pleasure. Would you like some mashed potatoes?”
Susie eyed the two mounds of spuds on Norman’s plate.
“I don’t really want to eat meat anymore. With all the…” Norman stopped himself.
“Killing,” Susie said.
“Yes,” Norman replied.
“Me neither.”
“So would you like some?” Norman asked her again.
“I’d love some,” she said.
Norman motioned to the waiter.
“I used to be a dance instructor. But nobody wants to learn how to dance anymore,” Susie said.
“I want to learn,” Norman stated enthusiastically.
He did a little dancing-while-sitting move, shaking his upper body and rotating his hands, which made Susie laugh.
“See. I need help.”
The waiter arrived and said, “Okay.” He wasn’t thrilled about being a waiter.
“Susie, who is the best dance instructor in Pittsburgh, would like some mashed potatoes,” Norman said to him.
“Two scoops or one?” he asked her.
“One scoop. Please.”
“Come on, live a little,” Norman said.
“Okay. What the hell. Two scoops,” Susie said.
The waiter wrote down “two scoops” and journeyed back to the kitchen.
“What about you?” Susie asked. “What do you do?”
“I’m a roofer,” Norman said. “But not much roof work at the moment.”
“Do you get scared being up there?” Susie asked him.
“Naw.”
“I’d get scared,” she said.
“Have you ever been on a roof?” Norman inquired.
“No,” she said.
“It’s nice sometimes, being up there, above it all,” he said.
Sitting across from Susie made Norman very happy he stayed in Pittsburgh. When the green star first appeared in the night sky over a year ago, it looked like the killing was only happening in cities, so Norman considered moving to the country. But after seeing a news segment about a farmer killing another farmer, he bought a firearm instead. The daily killings were happening in every city, town and rural community all over the world.
Just then, Norman noticed a very angry man marching through the parking lot, barreling straight for Applebee’s.
“We’ll have to change that,” Norman said, sliding his right hand back under the table and taking hold of his gun again. “I would never let you fall.”
Susie smiled at Norman’s romantic gesture.
The angry guy stopped near the front doors and looked down at the body. He touched his forehead, his chest, and then his shoulders. When he was done crossing himself, he stormed into the restaurant.
Norman unlocked the safety, put his finger on the trigger.
The angry man yanked a gun out of his jacket, and stomped furiously toward their table.
“Is there going to be more than one murder a day now?” a woman in a booth asked loudly.
Susie spun around and saw the angry man coming for her.
“This is for my brother,” he screamed as he raised the gun.
By then, Norman had his gun pointed at the guy. He pulled the trigger, sending a bullet into the man’s chest before he got off a round. The attacker stumbled backward and dropped the gun. He tried to stay upright but fell to his knees.
“I hate that fucking star,” he said while the blood pooled in his mouth.
Susie, with her hands over her ears, turned back around to see Norman holding his smoking gun.
“You are you, right?” Susie yelled. Her ears were ringing from the gunshot.
“I’m me!” Norman yelled back, electrified by what he had just done.
Susie’s eyes now looked so much greener to Norman. He had just killed a man, but all he could think about was staring into those green eyes for as long as he remained on this cursed earth. He slid out of the booth, still holding his Smith & Wesson, and dropped to one knee on Susie’s side. He took her hand in his.
“Will you marry me, Susie?” he asked.
“Oh, my god.”
“Will you?”
“I…am I dreaming?” she asked.
“No,” Norman said. “You’re here in the real world. Here with me.”
“I turned off the heat in my apartment, and put on this sundress,” Susie said.
“Okay,” Norman replied, unsure what that had to do with his marriage proposal.
“I’ve been standing outside too, to feel even colder. I wanted to feel something other than sad about Becca being gone. The star killed her on Monday. She was my best friend.”
“We can turn off the heater at my place too,” Norman said.
“Yes, then,” Susie said. “I will marry you!” A tear of joy slid down her cheek.
“Hold out your other hand,” Norman said.
Susie offered Norman her other hand. He placed the gun in her palm and folded her fingers around it.
“You keep this on you at all times. If the star chooses me, and it’s you I go after, I don’t want to kill my wife. Okay?”
“Okay,” Susie said as so many tears fell down her face.
“You’ll kill me, right?”
“Yes, I’ll kill you,” she said.
Norman stood up. Susie bolted up and hugged him tighter than anyone she’d ever hugged before. During their embrace, the waiter arrived with Susie’s mashed potatoes.
“I’d like that to go, please,” she said.
Norman pulled away from Susie’s embrace and turned to face everybody in Applebee’s.
“That was me. Not the star. I did that. To protect my wife,” Norman exclaimed.
Norman wasn’t sure if he was proud of himself or scared of himself. The diners said nothing to push him in either direction. This was the first time they had witnessed a killing as an act of free will.
Later that day, around sunset, Norman and Susie climbed up onto Norman’s roof with the styrofoam to-go box. Once they got up top, Norman led her to a portion of the roof that was flat. Then he pulled a concealed Bluetooth speaker out of his pocket.
“I would like my first dancing lesson,” he said.
Susie blushed.
“Can we do it to a romantic song?” Norman asked.
“Let me see your phone,” she said.
Norman handed her his phone. She typed a song into Spotify, then set the phone and her new gun down on the roof. Norman placed the mashed potatoes next to the weapon.
“You’re going to learn the waltz,” she told him.
“I’m nervous,” Norman said.
Susie took her husband’s hands in hers. She looked into his eyes and said,
“Don’t be. Your wife will take care of you.”
Garth Brooks’ The Dance started to play.
“Follow my feet,” Susie instructed him.
Norman did his best, but he was clumsy.
From across the street, a woman who had cried herself to sleep every night since the star appeared looked out her window and saw Norman and Susie dancing on the roof. She was old, and her legs were achy, so she pulled a chair up to the window and sat. She even opened her window so she could hear Garth Brooks.
Once the song was done, Susie started it over. They danced to The Dance again. The second time around, Norman was less clumsy, which brought a smile to the old woman’s face. She got up to pour herself a glass of Riesling. After that, she stayed in her chair at the window watching the roofer and the dance instructor dance to Garth Brooks over and over again, forgetting, at least for a short while, about the green angel of death up there in the night sky.