Book One, Page Twenty-Five. The Upside Downside.
Genie and Mario were waiting in the bar when Jerry and Julie arrived. Aline Primeux, Maison Bavette's dining room empress, moved in on Jerry with a quick continental kiss.
"Aline!" he said. "What till I tell you what I have on my mind!"
"Oh, I am so sorry!" Aline said. "Patrick didn't like the duck liver they sent him and there is no pate!"
"Oh, no!" Jerry said, his eyebrows pushing his forehead high up. "But that's okay, really. I want to ask you about a plan I have."
"And what is this plan?" The French accent was slight with Aline, but the words still came out "ziss plan."
"Jerry wants to open a restaurant," said Julie. "He wants me to work in it with him. Is that possible, or will we kill each other?"
"I'll tell you what, we do just fine," said Aline. "But if you ask Patrick, I don't know what he would say. I never know what he's going to say." She smiled in her pleasant ear-to-ear way, then . . . just vanished into thin air. Jerry looked around, and saw Aline standing in back of a table, with a pile of menus in her arm and a chair pulled out. She always did that trick, removing a thin slice of conscious time from your life, while she did something to serve you.
The four friends sat down. Genie launched right into the matter at hand. "Julie tells me you want to open a restaurant. Tell me about that. And I'll have a Bombay Sapphire martini, up, and dirty."
Jerry looked around, wondering to whom Genie was speaking. It was Aline, of course, who'd somehow reappeared behind him and was writing down drink orders. "And of course Champagne for you Mrs. Wells," Aline said. "And for the gentlemen?"
"Manhattan, up," Jerry said. "It came to me in a dream. It was all I could think about for days. I've calmed down since then, but it's still an obsession. Especially since I found the place, which wound up being exactly the spot I envisioned in my dream!"
Genie and Mario looked at each other, then at Julie, then at Jerry. "O-kay," said Mario. "Where is that?"
"The old drugstore on the corner of Carrollton and Claiborne," Jerry said. "I love the place, and that's a long story. But if I don't open a restaurant there, I know I will regret it the rest of my life."
"Wait a minute," said Genie, taking charge again. "What does a veterinarian know about--"
"Stop! Stop!" said Julie. "Jerry, don't answer. Trust me, people, you don't want to hear it."
Mario looked puzzled, then his face lit up as the answer came to him. He laughed. "I think I get the idea."
They became aware of Patrick Primeux's slim frame at tableside. "Who is the crazy man thinking about opening a restaurant?" ("Restoranh" is what he really said.) Jerry raised his hand.
"Sacre bleu! I'll do you a favor and just kill you now."
