Suzy Q walked into Little America's dining room and glanced around. She was popping chewing gum, swinging her purse back and forth, one hand on her hip.

"Miz Purdy? I'm gonna seat m'self," she hollered at the spun candy-haired older waitress.

Miz Pearl Purdy answered back, "Yeah, honey, go right ahead. There's only you and those other two, this time a'day. I'll bring yer coffee, after I get their order going!"

Suzy Q sauntered over to a booth, close to the salty dog and the weirdly clothed bird. If there'd been music playing it would've been the ta-da-da-dum-ta-da-da-dum of a stripper, the way she sashayed her hips, knowing they were watching. Any new blood in Shy-Anne and she knew it like a hound on a hot trail.

As she slid into the booth next to them, she smiled at them and said "Howdy, strangers!" They were bedazzled...instead of the shallow, hennaed, pony-tailed frump they'd seen walk in, her smile and voice lit up the room and melted their hearts. She was a nightingale in a sparrow's body.