Our last dinner was the wildest. This took place in Toledo. I was excited to meet the four Greek women from Toledo who called me having seen my phone number on the cork. They were drinking a bottle of Pinot Noir. “We just finished dressing a deer we shot this morning and now we are cooking it."
“Really,’ I said.
“We are amazing women out here,” they said to me.
“Of that I am certain,” I replied. I knew they would love Deerkiller.
I don’t remember much about the evening. One thing that night, made me very happy. I admit it is a little narcissistic of me. Chef came out to sit with me. I like Chef. We sat together drinking. Chef had opened his new restaurant exactly when the economy collapsed. Not, that Toledo was booming in the good times. He seemed to be doing okay. A gentleman came up to me and told me he liked my Cabernet. “I bought all the Cab the restaurant had left.”
“Thank you,” I said. Chef told me later that he was the keyboardist for Bob Seger. “I like Bob Seger,” I said.
Chef looked at me at smiled. “You are going to be successful,” he said.
I smiled at Chef. “What makes you think so?” I asked.
“The __________'s from Napa, are friends of mine. Before they were famous they would stop in here and ask me to take their wines. They even tried to get me to open a restaurant in Napa. They make great red wines. Your wines are as good. But, they have a little more finesse to them. I think I like them more.”
“Chef, you do not know how much that means to me,” I said. “Thank you.”
Driving to Detroit early the next morning, Deerkiller was surly. I knew the problem. She hadn’t gotten a deer this trip.
“Stupid”’ she said.
Just as we pulled into the Detroit Airport our phones went off. We had the same message. Our flight to Chicago was cancelled. We were due out at 12:00. They would get us to Chicago on a plane that left later that evening. I had a 4:00 leaving Chicago for Oakland. I had to go home. Deerkiller dropped me off in front of NWA. “See what you can do,” she said. First thing I did was call my daughter who lives in Michigan. I thought maybe I could buy her lunch. I had a gift for her in case we could get together. It was her birthday.” Maybe this is providence. A good thing,” I thought. But, I was sad that I could not reach her on any of her numbers.
NWA did not seem to think I had a problem. I was sent to three different places by three women who could care less about customer service. They were busy with personal problems I suspect. That last didn’t even speak. She just frowned at me. “Try that”. She brushed cracker crumbs off her clean blue uniform and pointed to one of three phones. The lady on the phone was no better. “You don’t seem to understand,” she repeated for the fourth time. "It is not our problem to get you to Chicago in time for you to catch a flight on another airline. Our problem is just to get you to Chicago sometime today, and we can do that at 7:30.” Being on the road is really glamorous. I had begun to look at flights to Los Angeles, when my phone rang. It was Deerkiller. “Any luck,” she asked. “None” I responded.
“Good,” she said. “I have an idea.”
“What is it,” I asked.
“I will drive you to Chicago and you will make your 4:00 flight.”
“Really”, I said
“Yes”, she said.” But, we will have to drive across all of Michigan to do it. “
I laughed. “There are a lot of deer between here and Chicago,” I said. She laughed.
“Let’s go,” I said smilingly. She pulled up in the silver convertible. She was all smiles. I like Deerkiller.
Somewhere near Custer’s fort she started singing songs from old musicals. What was really strange was I knew them all. I sang with her.