Butterfly Loves Jack
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Butterfly’s done it again.

Have you any idea how embarrassing it is to take your mother into Jack in the Box Restaurant and have a roar go up, “Butterfly!  We’re so glad to see you!”?   It’s much like the reaction on the old TV show “Cheers” whenever Norm entered: “Norm!”  But Jack in the Box is no Cheers.

match made in heaven

Have you any idea how embarrassing it is when the clerk leans over the counter to whisper, “She’s our best customer!” and winks?

We had about half an hour to kill between missions today (Meals on Wheels having been completed and her doctor’s appointment being next on the agenda) when I offered to take her to Jack in the Box, which is the place she frequents whenever she’s in town on her own.  This is despite the fact that I’ve set up an account at a very nice restaurant where she could eat, with her friends, in style, on my tab.  Why would she do that, she asks me, when she can eat for less than two bucks at Jack’s?  Sigh.

By the time we got up to the counter, the quick-witted staff was drawing up Butterfly’s order, which apparently never varies, and therefore doesn’t require her to speak.  I simply added a cup of coffee for myself.  Her lunch of choice consists of a chicken sandwich (no mayo, plus tomato), a kid’s drink and don’t you dare forget her senior discount (or her side of ranch dressing).

There is much oohing and aahing over her clothing and jewelry.  Butterfly inquires after everyone’s children and significant others.

Jack's best customer

She then plops down at “her” table, where they deliver her meal.  All the other customers have to wait for their number to be called and retrieve the food themselves.

She goes to Jack’s at least 3 times a week – Wednesday after piano class, Friday after art class and Sunday after church.  Sometimes her friend from piano class goes with her.  Butterfly tells me that they refer to it as Butterfly’s “office”.  When they leave the nursing home (have I mentioned that they take piano lessons from a blind 96-year-old nursing home resident?), her friend always asks, “Shall I meet you at your office for lunch?”

Who knew that I’d have a mother who would hold court in Jack in the Box?  Now that I think about it, though, it makes some kind of twisted sense.  If you think about it long enough.  And knock your head against the wall a few times.