Humble Servant

by Victor Kreuiter

About the Author: Victor Kreuiter has published fiction in Sou'wester, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Literally Stories, Halfway Down the Stairs, and Del Sol Review.

Excerpt

Samuel Harris slowed, pulled into the parking lot, drifted right and stopped. He looked at the diner, at the two cars parked in the lot, up at the sign. As faded as the sign was he could still read it: Bessemer Diner. The diner had seen better days.

He parked next to a pickup truck, took a moment, said a silent prayer, then grabbed his Bible off the passenger seat, checked himself in the rearview mirror, ran fingers through his hair, adjusted his collar, opened the door and stepped out. It was mid-afternoon and too hot.

The Bessemer Diner was at the junction of County Road 400 and Bartlett Road, a mile west of State Route 18. Catty-corner from it was a small brick building that had once been a machine shop; it was boarded up. The other two corners? Empty, and always had been. Next to and behind the diner, scrub weeds and grass, struggling to stay alive. Further out a soybean field.

A bell rang when Samuel Harris stepped inside the diner. In the back, at the far table, two faces looked up. Harris assumed those were the two he was looking for, described as a young skinny kid, not all that smart and a bit slow, and an older guy, overweight and slovenly. Walking to their table Harris stopped at the counter, no one behind it. He waited for a face to pop up in the kitchen hatch and when that didn’t happen he slapped the counter a couple times. A woman’s face appeared. “Sweetheart, could I get a cup of coffee?” he asked. She nodded without saying a word. She noticed his collar. There wasn’t a church around for miles.

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