The Sequel to The Restaurant She slumped in the passenger seat, gazing out the window. There hadn't been much conversation on the drive, as he could tell she was in no mood to converse. She held a wad of cocktail napkins to her red, streaming nose, occasionally wiping at her bloodshot, watery eyes. Though her earlier sneezing fits had subsided, about every fifteen seconds she would take in one unsteady breath, or inhale quickly several times, and sneeze powerfully into the napkins: "ha-ISSHHHooo!" She would then flop back into the seat, breathing through her mouth, until it started all over again. She must have been exhausted. So they drove in relative silence, punctuated only by her sneezes. He grew accustomed to their rhythm, and found himself constantly anticipating the next. Even when their strength diminished, and she began to sneeze tiredly instead of violently -- "het-shoooo!" -- he enjoyed them no less. This despite the sympathy he felt for her unfortunate condition. As they approached her house, she roused and gave him directions, but he could tell by her voice and her eyes that she was staving off the ever-present tickle in her nose as she did so. As they pulled in the driveway, she let out two loud sneezes that sounded like they might have been painful. "ha- ISHHooo -- huhh...HAA-ESSHHoo!" She buried her nose into the napkins again with a slight groan, then sniffled twice as she turned to him. "Thaks," she said in a voice that was half gone. "This was idcredibly dice of you." "Don't mention it," he replied. "Damsels in distress, remember?" She opened the door, collected her things. "Guess I'll see you at the office, huh?" "Hope so," he said. She smiled in a "you must be nuts" kind of way, and shut the door. As she stood, he watched the smile fade quickly and though she turned away , he could hear the series of short gasps. A moment later, he heard but didn't see a wet, muffled sneeze come from the corner she'd turned to get to her front door. It was followed by s second, then a third: "het-tshhhhhhoo....het- tsshhhooo...HET-tsssssshhhoo." In the next second, he could hear a door opening and closing. He strained for a moment, listening, but there was only silence. He smiled, and backed out of the driveway. * * * He sat in the small park, reading the small newspaper on his small lunch hour. He felt himself serenaded, as due to the pollen-friendly weather, the crowd of lunching clockwatchers provided a nearly constant backdrop of sneezing of all kinds. So he barely turned his head when a sudden sneeze came from the bench to his right, whose inhabitants he hadn't even noticed. As a result, he nearly did a double take when he saw one of them was the woman from a week before. "I can't believe they made you come to work with that cold," the other woman, a chunky redhead, said indignantly. He leaned forward quickly to catch a glimpse of the dark woman. Though not yet in as bad straits as the night he'd driven her home, a reddened nose and teary eyes were in evidence. She fumbled through the lunch bag she held and pulled out a napkin just in time to sneeze heavily into it twice: "huhhISSSHoooo...huhhISSSHHHooooo!" She blew her nose, then sniffed to try and clear it further. "Thanks, but it's not a cold, it's really just allergies." Almost on cue, a young man sitting on the grass with his friends sneezed convulsively several times. She laughed quietly. "Like everyone else here." "You don't look very well," her friend said. "I've felt behh..." she replied, the word turning into a quavering exhale before she breathed in sharply. "Better --" she finished quickly before turning her head to the side and sneezing into the napkin again. Her friend watched as she sat in that position, eyes closed, napkin held over her nose and mouth, breathing irregularly, obviously tormented by the sensations in her nose. "Why don't you just --" the other woman began before her companion interrupted her with another sneeze, unanticipated by either the man watching the scene or the redhead: "PSHHHooo!" "Bless you," her friend responded. "Why don't you just go home?" "Got way too buch to do," the woman replied shortly, sounding more and more congested. The redhead checked her watch and clucked. "Look, hon, I've got to get back to the office. Why don't you stay out here for a little bit though?" The dark-haired woman nodded distractedly, looking not at her friend but directly in front of her. Though her mouth was closed, he could see her nostrils flaring even at this distance. Her friend patted her shoulder and walked off. "The fresh air might do you some good," she called back cheerily over her shoulder. The other woman cracked the slightest of smiles. "The fresh air is the pro...probl..." The smile turned into a grimace as her eyes squeezed shut and she sneezed again, wearily, jerking forward and then back as though she had no power to resist. "huhh-ISHHooooo!" He watched and listened as she drew in a wet sniff that sounded like it did nothing for her blocked nose. She rubbed away tears from the corners of her reddened eyes with the napkin for a moment before turning her head quickly into her hand and sneezing into the napkin yet again, violently this time. "HEHHHHiiishhhh! Uhh..." She inhaled with two quick gasps after the short moan, and half-closed her eyes, but simply sat there for a moment before she relaxed, opening her eyes and keeping her mouth open to breathe stuffily. He wondered for a moment whether he ought to intrude on the woman's vulnerable state. Eventually intrigue won out over politeness, and he casually stood up and wandered over. He decided against an obvious show of surprise, and said only "Oh, hello," as he stopped in front of her bench. She raised her eyes to him and smiled briefly, but had time only to nod before she reacted to the sudden urge in her nose. Her face squeezed shut as she brought the sodden napkin up to her nose and mouth, and he watched for another agonized moment as she sat in what looked like a tortured pose, breathing quickly and shallowly. Finally, with what could have been relief, her head drew downward sharply and she sneezed into the napkin with a wet, muffled sound. "hehh-MMMshhoooo!" The next sneeze was the first of many that followed, all short and muffled, coming close enough together that she could only breathe in for the next one afterwards. "heh! huh-MMMshhooo...haahh -- huh-MMSHHoooo...huh-huh! huh-MMMsshhhooo!" She kept sneezing, tears slowly running down her cheeks. She held the napkin over her nose and mouth, so all he could see was her eyes closing tighter just before each sneeze, and her head bobbing downwards and back. He sat down next to her, waiting out the paroxysm. When it finally abated after several minutes, he said as she mopped her nose and eyes, "Don't tell me it's been this bad since I last saw you." She managed a small laugh, then sniffled again quickly. "Dot this bad, but dot good." Immediately after this, her brows drew down and her nostrils began flaring irregularly. Her eyes fluttered and though her breathing was silent, he could tell that she was reacting to the tickle in her nose. When after a moment the sneeze still wouldn't come out, he decided to continue the conversation. "Maybe it's me," he said with studied casualness. "Does this ever happen to you..." He trailed off as her eyes suddenly squeezed shut and her mouth opened wide, and she sneezed with a loud, throaty sound, turning away slightly. "...when I'm not around?" he finished. She sneezed once more -- "haa-AASHHooooo!" -- and turned back to him with a faint, tired smile on her face, nodding. "All the tibe. Dod't get paradoid." She sniffed deeply, then coughed a little. "I'm just sorry you always have to see me like this." Don't be, he thought, then had a better thought. "Don't be," he said out loud. She looked at him, smiling. "That's nice of you," she said. Without warning, her face contorted and she just had time to turn away from him in profile before sneezing uncontrollably. Her hand didn't quite make it to her face, and he couldn't look away from the way her nostrils flared, her mouth opened, and a fine spray accompanied the sneeze as it burst out of her. "ahhh- HISHHHoooo! huhh..." The gasp gave her time to bring the napkin to her nose before sneezing again four times quickly. "HIISHHooo! HISHHooo! HESHHHoooo! huh-HISHHHooo! Ohh..." She rubbed her nose and eyes with the wet napkin as he finished savoring the outburst. She chuckled slightly, and without looking at him said, "I was goig to say that baybe we should do sobthing sobtibe whed I'b dot like this." He automatically dismissed the idea, mentally, before looking at her again. It wasn't merely her red, stuffy nose and watery eyes that he found intriguing. And it wasn't only her allergy attack that he had enjoyed listening to. "I'd love to," he replied instead. She responded with yet another sneeze. "ha-ISHHHooo!" "When do you think that might be?" he added as an afterthought, making her laugh. The laugh made her cough slightly, which she followed with a wet sniffle that got nowhere through her blocked nose. She rifled through her purse, coming up with a business card, and scribbled something on it, sniffling all the while and occasionally rubbing her nose with the napkin. She handed the card to him, and he read a phone number on the back. "Call be," she said casually. "Baybe you'll gehhh..." She drew in a shuddery breath. "hehhh --" One more sharp inhale, which she held for a moment. "Get lucky --" The words barely escaped from her before she brought the tissue to her nose again and sneezed into it repeatedly, muffled yet more congested than ever. "heh-MMMshhh! huh...heh-MMMSHhhoo! huh...heh-MMSHHoooo! huhh..." "I'm a lucky guy," he replied as she kept sneezing, knowing she couldn't hear.