<-- Elliott -- > 
A Brief History of Our Encounters with Elliott
August 14, 1998
Tammy and I first meet Elliott. We are intrigued by his spiky hair and interesting aura. We draw thought bubbles coming from the pictures of food on our tray liners. The hamburger says "God is dead," and the milkshake says "No, he is alive and well, and man is an expression of his love." The fries(?) say "Modern man's existential dilemma is a pile of poodle excrement." We leave these on the table for Elliott, whose name we gleaned from his tag and our bill, and we leave his tip atop a little note which reads "We dig your hair." We sign the note as "Turkey melt, sans 1,000 island" and "order of fries." Your humble narrator was the former signature. We wait outside at Tammy's car while Elliott discovers our gifts. After perusing the little pile we left for him, he looks out the window and waves. Tammy waves back, and I give my own personal wave, having missed the first one, as we drive by the door. End Day 1.
August 16, 1998
We return to Steak 'n Shake and sit in Elliott's area. The ordering and food delivery processes are uneventful. While we wait for our food, we write a page full of Steak 'n Shake haiku on the back of my tray liner, and we leave that for our "new friend." Again, we wait in the car and watch him read, but there is no waveage, and we leave disappointed. End Day 2.
December 13, 1998
We have made several attempts to see Elliott again. We went to Steak 'n Shake once with my parents, but Elliott was not there. We were waited-upon by the Orange Haired Boy, Brandon. We have driven by on many occasions, trying to see his spiky hair poking up from behind the counter, but we have yet to see him again. We composed a beautiful sonnet (soon to be added here) for him, and Andi, a girl from school who lives next door to him, said she would deliver it to him. She said she did, but we haven't heard anything back yet. Alas, I hope that we may find our fascination again.
December 31, 1998
We decided to go have dinner at Steak 'n Shake. First, we cruised to see if we could spot good ol' El. We couldn't, but we went in anyway. His usual section was blocked off, so we sat somewhere else. Our waiter, a lad called Eric, was a little clumsy and hard of hearing, but he was all right. He was flirtatious and liked my hat. While we were sitting in this new section, we looked up, and who did we see but Elliott?? He had dyed his hair yellow (to fool us, no doubt), and he was waiting on the table RIGHT behind us. He probably paid the other guy to take our table. We left Eric a little quiz on the table. It had some basic math, Roman Numeral conversion, word problems, spelling, and history. One problem said "spell kineticism." Another said "Who was Martin Van Buren's VP? (Show work.)" We went out to the parking lot to wait, as usual. After MUCH waiting (long enough for us to find friends in the parking lot), Elliott finally went near the table. He called Eric to the table, and they both hunched over, reading for a while. Then, Elliott patted Eric on the back, and he walked around with the quiz, showing all the other Steak 'n Shake personnel. We got no waves, and when Eric was near the window and I tried to wave and get his attention, he didn't look up. We have made yet another good friend at the Steak 'n Shake. Woohoo! Oh! We also met another young person who works there. He also liked my hat, and he brought us tray liners.
August 17, 1999
My good buddy Lisa told me that her best friend in the world's band was going to be playing a concert at the Cumming Skating Center and that I should come. Naturally, because I like Lisa a lot, I went, and young Fahey came as well. We sat through a not-too-interesting for me opening band, and around 9:30, the main band "Kringeshaw" came on. They had a few technical problems, but my focus was on the lead singer, who was sporting some very familiar yellow-white spikes on his head. Yes, that's right, folks. In the depths of a skating rink full of growly, loud music, I found our dear, lost Elliott! His band's music was not in my taste, really, but I have to give him a few good words. I couldn't tell what he was singing and/or yelling about, but he was very passionate. Also, he said he hoped that we were all happy inside, even if the outside world was imperfect. That made me feel good because I love when people want me to be happy. You should all go check out his band's web page at http://members.xoom.com/kringeshaw. It's pretty cool, and the pictures put my little digitally challenged ones to shame. So, that is what happened to our missing friend. What do you know...
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