Present Tense
September 3, 2022 – Los Angeles, California, USA
Lucas saved his favorite restaurant for special occasions. He loved the green and white tiles on the floor with worn impressions from decades of foot traffic. He loved the brass railing and upholstered booths and the way it smelled like fresh bread no matter when he arrived.
As the front door pulled itself shut behind him, Lucas stepped to the sunlit hostess station. Before he could say a word, he saw his oldest daughter, Macie, waving to him from one of the booths near a window.
“I’m meeting my daughter,” Lucas said to the hostess. “Looks like she beat me here, as usual.”
“Please enjoy,” the hostess replied, gesturing for Lucas to feel free to join his daughter.
“Look, I got us one of the tables you like,” Macie said, when Lucas reached the booth. She stood and gave him a long embrace. She was almost as tall as her father, with a thin frame, neatly trimmed hair – including bangs – and wearing a well-ironed cotton blouse.
“When did you get here?” Lucas asked.
“Probably fifteen minutes ago. Maybe more.”
“You said to arrive at two o’clock. I thought I was right on time.”
“You were. I just wanted to make sure we got one of the nice tables.”
Lucas looked around at the half-empty room. “You don’t need to worry so much.”
“C’mon, Dad. It’s your birthday. I want it to be special.”
“I told you not to make a fuss. It’s not a milestone birthday and I’d rather not think about getting older.”
“I know, I know. Only the girls are coming.”
“No husbands or boyfriends?”
“No, just us. Like you wanted. The other two should be here any second.”
Macie talked proudly about the route she had taken to get to the restaurant, then she complained about her sisters being late. “I told them when they needed to leave and exactly where to park.”
Lucas remained disinterested in the navigation details.
“I don’t know why you always come to this place, Dad. It’s hard to get to.”
“I don’t always come here. I like having one of their French dip sandwiches once in a while. So sue me.”
A few minutes later, Lila, the youngest sister, arrived at the hostess station. Macie stood up and waived her over. Lila looked like a shorter version of Macie. She held a phone in one hand and carried a large camera bag with the other.
Before sitting down, Lila pulled out her camera and snapped shots of the restaurant. “You both look great,” she said to Macie and her father. “Let me get some of you together.”
Macie slid close to Lucas and posed with a smile. Lucas’s face stayed blank.
“All I can think about when I’m in here are Dad’s birthdays,” Lila said, after finishing up her photo session and sliding into the booth. “Look, I made a slideshow of the last few years.” Lila passed her phone over to Macie who swiped through the picture collection.
“And remember that time we all drove to Palos Verdes for the sunset,” Lila continued. “That was probably my favorite birthday yet.”
Macie wanted to know about any traffic Lila had encountered. As they chatted, a waiter stopped at their booth and asked about drinks.
“We’re still waiting for one more person,” Macie said. “But I guess we could get drinks and appetizers. Dad, what do you think?”
“I’m here for the sandwich. The rest of you can do what you want.”
Macie fussed about eating before the last sister arrived. Lila could not remember what was good on the menu. The waiter left with only drink requests.
“I don’t know where Reilly is,” Macie said in frustration. “I’d text her, but she takes forever to answer. Drives me crazy.”
“You sure she remembers?” Lila asked.
“I’ve only sent her a hundred messages about it. She probably saw a butterfly and started following it around.”
Macie and Lila grew more agitated about Reilly ruining the birthday lunch. She finally arrived thirty minutes later and stopped for a chat with the hostess before sauntering over to their booth.
Reilly was dressed more casually than her sisters. Her features were also more rounded, including a broadly smiling face. Reilly squeezed in next to Lila, ignoring her sisters’ glares for being late. She placed a cardboard cake box on the table. The box was held closed with string.
“I lost track of time,” Reilly said cheerfully. “My neighbor has all these stained-glass wind chimes. She said I could have one if I helped her clean them.”
Macie rolled her eyes.
“And then I stopped at this shoe store I’ve been meaning to visit and right next to it is a bakery. They had pineapple upside down cake. I’ve never had it before so I thought we could try it together.” Macie tapped on the cake box.
“I like pineapple upside down cake,” Lucas said thoughtfully.
Macie frowned. She grabbed a box sitting next to her on the booth and lifted it onto the table. “I told you not to bring any presents and that I was bringing cupcakes for dessert.”
“The pineapple cake isn’t a present. I thought we could eat it with the cupcakes,” Reilly replied.
The waiter returned. Reilly and her dad ordered French dip sandwiches. The two other sisters ordered salads, a decision they continued to second guess.
After Reilly admired Lila’s photo montage of past birthday celebrations, she pointed out some of the photos on the wall at the restaurant.
“Look at all the Hollywood celebrities who have eaten here. I can see why. I could sit next to these windows for hours. And just the sound from the kitchen makes me hungry.”
When their food arrived, Reilly and Lucas dipped their sandwiches in synch and giggled about the mess they were making. Lila regretted not getting a sandwich herself and Macie said that next time she would know better than to order a salad.
The waiter brought a knife and extra plates for the pineapple upside down cake. Reilly raved about how good it tasted. “Almost as good as Macie’s cupcakes,” she added.
“Well Dad, I know you said to keep this low key, but I wrote to some of your friends and asked them for birthday thoughts,” Macie announced. She revealed a piece of paper and an envelope. “I printed out what they said, and you can read this later. I told them no presents, but somebody sent this card anyway. I don’t know if you want to save that for later too.”
“It’s from my friend Maxwell,” Lucas said, as he reached for the card. He opened it up and chuckled to himself as he read what was inside. Then he looked up and said, “I guess I should share it with you. Maxwell thinks he’s a philosopher. He wrote, ‘Live the rest of your life like it’s a walk in the woods.’ Then he says I should take one of my daughters to a Dodger’s game. He put two tickets in the envelope.”
Lucas shook his head, smiled, and put the card on the table. All three of his daughters quietly stared at the tickets sticking out from the card.
“Are the seats good?” Lila asked.
“Yes, the seats are very good. The game’s two weeks from today,” replied Lucas.
“So . . . I guess you need to decide who to take,” Macie said.
Lucas leaned back in his chair and grimly looked back and forth between his daughters. “On second thought, I should never have read that to you. Maxwell probably thinks it’s funny, putting me in this position.”
“But you should decide now, so we can plan for it,” Macie added.
“It’s a tough decision. Someone’s going to have their feelings hurt. And I’m not even sure how much each of you wants to go.”
“I’m happy to go if you want,” Macie replied. “I just need to make sure we can get in and out without a lot of waiting around in traffic.”
“And I love making memories like that,” Lila added. “Dodger Stadium is great for pictures.”
Everyone turned toward Reilly as if she was supposed to share her opinion. She cleared her throat and said, “Yeah, I’d like to go too. But you know, I go to plenty of baseball games. You might want to pick Macie or Lila. I’d probably forget about it, but Macie would definitely get you there on time. And Lila would help you remember it for years.”
“We promise not to feel bad, whoever you pick,” Macie said. “We just need to know.”
Lucas closed his eyes. He picked up the card and reread it. Then he closed his eyes again. “You know I love all three of you. I would enjoy being with any of you, but this time I’m going to listen to what Maxwell wrote. If I’m in the woods, I want to enjoy the trees and the fresh air. I don’t want to think about getting home or whether I’ll remember the smell.”
“So what are you saying?” Macie asked.
“If I invite you to the game, you’ll worry for a week about how to get there and then how to leave. Lila, you’ll spend the whole time worrying about pictures and whether we’ll remember where we sat. I don’t want this to be more trouble than it’s worth. Reilly, I want you to come along and enjoy it while it’s happening.”
Reilly shrugged her shoulders while avoiding the glares of her sisters. “Okay. I’ll try not to forget, but you better call and remind me.”
“That’s fine. I don’t care,” said Macie, who despite her promise was obviously hurt.
“Neither do I,” Lila added. She slumped silently like her oldest sister and failed at looking indifferent.
Reilly filled the new silence by talking about more celebrity portraits on the wall. Then she noticed that their waiter looked a lot like someone Lila had dated. She asked her dad if they could sing Happy Birthday to him. He agreed to a hummed rendition.
By the time the song was over, Macie’s mood had brightened. She determined to make the most of the baseball game situation and said, “I’ll make sure Reilly knows when to leave and what streets to avoid.”
Lila decided to stay positive too. She said to Reilly, “If you take any picture with your phone, send them to me and I’ll make a little scrapbook.”
Lucas smiled lovingly at his daughters, who had let Maxwell’s lesson about the woods roll off their backs. “To living in the moment,” he called, holding up a glass as if giving a toast. All three daughters raised their glasses and clanked them against his.
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