Hope Was Here
By Joan Bauer
Chapter 3
1. We were sitting in a booth by the window, reading the list of
daily specials.
2. “Meat, potatoes, and too much cheese,” Addie muttered.
3. Three antique ceiling fans blew a gentle breeze through
the diner: Everything seemed shiny and freshly painted white.
4. There was a hooked rug of brilliant colors hanging on a wall,
the booths by the windows had big blue seat cushions you
just sank into. 5. The counter sat twelve—good size, but man-
ageable; behind the counter was a long shelf stocked with
bottles of every kind of hot sauce known to man from Satan’s
Red-Hot Revenge to Texas Tabasco Terror. 6. Black-and-white-
checkerboard linoleum.
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7. Definitely an above average diner.
8. “The dessert case is unacceptable,” Addie snarled. 9. “You
going to put a pearl necklace from Tiffany’s inside a plastic
box?”
10. It was pretty puny. If you didn’t know how Addie felt about
her desserts, it would be hard to follow this.
11. “I’ve never been inside Tiffany’s”
12. “I haven’t either, but they know how to display their jewels,
let me tell you.”
13. A man with a sweet, broad face who didn’t speak much
English brought us water.
14. “Welcome, women,” he said with a formal bow and then
backed into a bus pan that was full of dirty dishes. 15. A black wait-
ress steadied it just before it would have crashed to the ground.
16. “Thank you, Lord,” she said, laughing.
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17. She was wearing a black skirt and a white blouse with the
name Flo embroidered over her heart. 18. Above her name she
wore a silver pin with the letters GOG inside a circle.
19. She had a beautiful face and short, full hair. I liked her smile.
20. She stood by our table—not there to rush us. 21. I knew from
Addie’s notes that Flo was the floor manager.
22. “You nice folks decide?”
23. That made me grin. 24. It takes Addie longer to warm up. 25. It
makes her nuts to be in a restaurant where she’s not cooking.
26. Addie leaned forward in testing mode. 27. “Now, when you say
here ‘pot roast with whipped potatoes,’ are those potatoes
whipped each day by hand or do you use the leftovers for a few
days in a row?”
28. “We’ll use the leftover whips in a shepherd’s pie and in
potato croquettes, but not on a dinner plate with pot roast.
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29. You know your way around a menu, don’t you?”
30. Addie’s blue eyes flickered in respect for Flo. 31. “I’ll have
the pot roast, but I’d like the gravy on the side, and I’ll have the
mixed vegetables if they’re fresh, but if not, I’ll have the salad.”
32. “What kind of dressing on the salad?” Flo asked, laughing.
33. Addie grinned back at Flo’s command. 34. “Russian.”
35. “Yes?” 36. The man with the sweet, broad face came instantly
to our table.
37. Flo laughed gently and grabbed his hand. 38. “Yuri here’s from
Russia. 39. He thought you were calling him.”
40. Flo walked him back to the kitchen. 41. “Russian’s not just a
person, honey. 42. It’s a kind of salad dressing.” 43. Flo got salads from
the case; poured dressing on them. 44. “You’re a Russian, and this
is called Russian, too.”
45. Yuri took a step backward, unsure.
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46. She grinned. 47. “It’s a crazy world.”
48. Yuri’s eyebrows furrowed. 49. “Crazy, yes.”
50. Flo brought our salads, crisp and fresh, just as the door
opened and eight big men came inside wearing VOTE FOR ELI
MILLSTONE campaign buttons. 51. One of the men handed a VOTE
FOR ELI MILLSTONE poster to Flo and instructed her to put it
in the window.
52. Flo said, “Langley, you know G.T. won’t go for that. 53. You’d
better wait till he comes in tomorrow morning and you can
talk to him yourself. 54. Yuri, set a table, please, for these gentle-
men.”
55. “Welcome, men.” 56. Yuri pushed two tables together, brought
place settings, got water and menus. 57. The men sat down with-
out thanking him.
58. “Coffee, men?”
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59. “It true you from Russia?” one of the men asked Yuri.
60. “I leave Russia, yes.”
61. “Well, that’s kinda obvious,” said another man, and the oth-
ers laughed.
62. Yuri stood there laughing, too; he didn’t know they were
making fun of him. 63. That made the others laugh harder.
64. Addie touched Yuri’s arm. 65. “Coffee, please,” she asked
sweetly. 66. She didn’t drink coffe at night; I knew she’d done it
to get him away from that table.
67. Vote for Eli Millstone.
68. Whoever he was, already I didn’t like him.
69. “Sweet Jesus.” 70. Addie flopped down on the stairs leading
up to our apartment over the Welcome Stairways. 71. We were
trying to carry our small couch up the staircase. 72. Being young
and vital, I had more of the couch weight.
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73. “Tell me the truth, Hope, what you think of that meal
we had tonight? 74. I thought it was average.”
75. “Let’s just get the couch upstairs and--”
76. Addie picked up her end and huffed up the stairs. 77. “I won-
der if they can handle me introducing the butterscotch cream
pie and the deep-dish apple in the same week.”
78. “Could we do this a little quicker?”
79. “You can’t overwhelm customers with too much at--”
80. “I’m going to drop the couch, Addie. 81. It will fall on me and I’ll
die.”
82. “Why didn’t you say something before?” 83. She eased the door
open and pushed the couch through it to a very large room
with white curtains.
84. I put down my end and fell to the floor to make a point.
85. Addie doesn’t always pick up on subtle, except in seasonings.
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86. We were set to meet with G.T. Stoop tomorrow morning.
87. Addie was sitting on the couch making notes on how to
introduce her brand of revolutionary comfort food to the Wel-
come Stairways.
88. I’d written out my favorite definition of my name on a three-
by-five card; I needed extra help in the hoping department.
89. From Webster’s collegiate dictionary: Hope—to cherish a de-
sire with expectation of fulfillment.
90. I hope, I hope, I hope this will all turn out for good.
91. I’d hoped for the same thing at the Blue Box.
92. Some hopes just get pulverized.
93. I looked at myself in the big mirror we’d leaned against the
wall, cocked my head, and smiled engagingly. 94. My pearly white
teeth are my best feature.
95. Next best is my curly brown hair that dusts my shoulders—
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except for my bangs that are too long and hide my eyebrows,
which were perfectly arched by God. 96. I have a round face (a
sweet face, people say) with no discernable cheekbones. 97. My
skin is pale, my eyes are light blue like my mother’s. 98. I’m five-
eight, three inches taller than Addie, which gives me no power
in our relationship. 99. Miriam Lahey is two inches taller than her
mother, which gives her a true advantage whenever they
scream at each other.
100.I wrapped myself in a blanket so that only my eyes and
nose were visible and wondered if the police would ever catch
up with Gleason Beal, the King of Falsehood.
101. I should have been able to see the fakeness in him, even
though Addie said that’s not true.
102. “He was a con man, Hope. 103. Pretended to be something that
he wasn’t.”
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104. I’ll say.
105. He pretended to be my friend.
106. He told me one of the saddest things in his life was that he
never had a daughter.
107. Addie took out her graying brown ponytail. 108. Folded her
strong, muscled arms. 109. She had strong arms like a wrestler from
lugging all those kitchen pots around.
110. “Hope, I know Gleason Beal did a number on your head.
111. That man took our money and our jobs, but let’s not give him
anything else. 112. Not our minds, our hearts, or our souls. 113. He’s not
worth it.” 114. She took out her industrial-strength nightgown out of
her suitcase. 115. “We’re not going to hide from the truth. 116. This is
probably the hardest move we’ve made together, honey, but
we’re going to give it all we’ve got to make it work, and if it still
doesn’t fit, we’ll decide what to do. 117. We won’t stay someplace
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that isn’t right forever. 118. I promise.”
119. I nodded from under my protective cloak.
120. Addie always keeps her promises.
121. That’s why my mother gave me to her.
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