"At the Food Court" by Tom Ray

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The food court took up most of the ground floor of the office building. Unlike food courts in shopping malls, it featured full-size restaurants with dine-in seating. The restaurants surrounded a common area with tables and chairs. If a group of friends had different tastes on a given day, they could get carry-out from the restaurants and eat together in the common area.

Brian Fielden came out of the Indian place with his chicken curry lunch in one of those styrofoam boxes with a hinged lid. Ken Gunderson, with a BBQ sandwich, fries, and coleslaw in front of him, waved at Brian from a table in the middle of the food court. A guy in a gray pinstriped suit sat at the table with Ken, his back to Brian. Ken often joined a lone diner like that. He said he liked to meet new people. 

Only when he placed his tray on Ken’s table and sat did Brian recognize the other man. The man’s smile turned to a frown when he saw Brian. Neither spoke. Ken, in the middle of making a point to the other man, broke off to say, “General, this is my office mate, Brian. Brian, this is General Mildenhall. General Mildenhall is retired from the Army and works for Marlek.” Ken went on to explain to the General that Brian came to work for the Army as a contractor after retiring from a Department of Defense agency as a Federal employee.

After the introductions, Mildenhall turned his attention back to Ken. His face relaxed into a slight smile.

“Yeah, but it’s like that all over the world,” Ken went on.  “Like Korea, for example. The girls over there want to meet an American to make him their papa-san, so they can marry him and come to the States.”

Brian glanced at Mildenhall, who again stopped smiling. The General glanced at Brian and then turned his gaze toward Ken. Before Ken could continue, Mildenhall said, “You seem to be an authority on Korea. I guess you were stationed there?”

“I was on a special assignment there for three months when I was in the Air Force.”

“Got to town a lot, to the bars and all I take it?”

Ken chuckled. “No, I had a wife back in the States already. I stayed on base the whole time.” When Mildenhall and Brian said no more Ken continued talking about his career in the Air Force.

Mildenhall only had a salad for lunch. He excused himself after completing his meal, leaving Ken and Brian to finish eating.

#

At home that night over supper Brian’s wife Laura asked, “How’d it go today?”

“One interesting thing. Guess who I had lunch with.”

“Jennifer Aniston.”

“No. Troy Mildenhall.”

“General Mildenhall? Are you kidding me? Why would you eat with that asshole?”

He explained about finding Ken sitting at the table with somebody, and found out too late it was Mildenhall.

“You should have just walked away. Gone to a different table. That jerk caused you so much worry I can’t imagine how you could sit at the same table with him.”

“It would have been awkward not to sit with him. By the time I realized who he was, I was already sitting down. I didn’t want to make a scene in front of Ken.”

“Why do you hang out with that little creep Ken anyway? He’s always irritating you with the crap he says.”

“I don’t hang out with him. We work in the same office. People go to lunch together, it’s just customary. It kind of worked out funny today, anyway. Ken badmouthed Korean women. He said they try to hook an American to be their papa-san, so they can get married and come to the States.”

Laura laughed. “Now that’s funny. What did Mildenhall say?”

“Nothing like what you’d expect. He asked Ken a couple of questions about his time in Korea and then dropped it.”

“Did you tell Ken that Mildenhall’s wife was Korean?”

“No. What would be the point? He’d already said what he said and couldn’t take it back.”

She giggled. “No, but you could let him know he made an ass of himself. All your stories make me hate him without ever meeting him.”

#

A couple of weeks later Brian changed his mind about enlightening Ken on Mildenhall’s wife. He ate lunch at his desk that day, while Ken had gone out with one of the other guys in the office. 

After returning from lunch Ken came to Brian’s desk. “Did you know General Mildenhall before we met him that time in the food court?”

“Yeah. Before I retired he was deputy director at my agency for a couple of years.”

“Really? Why didn’t you say anything? I thought you two acted funny toward each other. I could tell something was wrong.”

“Yeah, we didn’t get along back then.” Brian disliked talking about that episode but wanted to make clear the reason for his aversion to Mildenhall. “He tried to get me fired.”

“Really? What’d you do?” Ken looked amused.

“It’s what I didn’t do. He had a pet project, and he wanted to show that it increased efficiency. I was in charge of workforce measurement, and my data didn’t back him up. He pushed me to do some creative accounting to show improvements that weren’t there. I wouldn’t do it, so he tried to get me fired. My boss supported me, and went to the director of the agency, who was Mildenhall’s boss. It all got sorted out.”

Ken became serious. “Trying to get you fired seems a little extreme.”

“He wanted to show some accomplishment during his assignment at my agency, to help him at the promotion board. It’s a thing senior officers have to do. Later I heard back channel that he blamed me for his not getting promoted. Because he didn’t get promoted he had to retire at the end of his tour at the agency. And he retired with only two stars.”

“That explains everything.” 

“Like what?”

“I just had lunch in the food court with Les. I saw Mildenhall coming out of the sushi place and waved him over. He frowned and nodded, so I know he saw me. But he didn’t join us and sat alone at another table. He must be pissed at me for being a friend of yours.”

“Maybe.” Brian paused before adding, “You know, Mildenhall’s late wife was Korean.”

“Oh, really?” Ken showed no reaction.

“So maybe he didn’t like what you said about Korean women.”

Ken furrowed his brow. “What do you mean? I didn’t say anything about Korean women.”

“Yeah you did. Right as I sat down you talked about Korean women wanting to marry American men so they could come to the States.”

“Well, that’s just a fact. And I wasn’t talking about his wife.”

“She was a Korean who married an American and immigrated to the States. That’s pretty much who you were talking about.”

“I don’t see it that way. I’m sure he must be mad at me for being a friend of yours.” Ken spoke with confidence.

“Maybe,” Brian said. He changed the subject rather than engage further with Ken on the subject of the General and his wife.

#

A few days after Brian told Ken about the General’s wife, the two of them went with Les to the food court. As they were eating, Ken asked Brian in a joking tone, “Have you seen your bro the General lately?” After Brian said no Les asked what that was all about. Ken told the back story.

Les said, “Wow, Brian, you forced a General to retire?”

“He sure as hell did,” said Ken. “And now the General hates him.”

“I don’t know. I heard he thought I was the reason he didn’t get promoted, but I doubt I had any impact. I think he hates Ken more than he hates me.”

Les said, “Why?”

Brian explained about Ken’s Korea remark, and Mildenhall’s late wife being Korean. 

Ken said, “I don’t remember saying that about Korean women, but even if I did, why would that make him mad? It’s a well-known fact.”

Les looked thoughtful. “I don’t know that it’s well known. I mean, I never thought about it. But it does make sense.” Les’s face brightened. “But getting a general fired—boy, Brian, you must have swung some weight back in the day. No wonder he hates you.”

“I didn’t get him fired. Somebody told me Mildenhall felt like I kept him from getting promoted. I don’t know that the absence of one good news story from his last tour would make them turn him down for promotion. But even if he hates me, I’m sure he wasn’t thrilled with what Ken said about Korean women.”

Les said, “How do you know that?”

“That’s why he didn’t sit with you guys at lunch when Ken waved him over.”

“Ken and me? I don’t remember that.” 

When Ken munched his sandwich without talking, Brian said, “Ken, you told me you saw Mildenhall and waved him over, and he just nodded at you, then sat by himself. Right?”

“Yeah, that’s true. But I still think it’s because of you, not anything I said.”

The conversation drifted off into other directions. After that lunch Ken never mentioned Mildenhall again, which pleased Brian; and Brian said no more about Ken’s opinion of Korean women, which he assumed pleased Ken. 

#

Brian ran into Mildenhall one final time. They happened to share an elevator when Brian went to a meeting in the building adjacent to the one where he worked.  After they entered the elevator on the ground floor, Brian and Mildenhall stood next to each other, staring at the door. Ken’s unwitting slight of the General’s wife still bothered Brian. Turning his head toward Mildenhall, he said, “General, I just want to say, I was disgusted by the comments that guy Ken made when we ate together in the food court. He was out of line, and I don’t agree with anything he said.”

Mildenhall stared hard at Brian before saying, “Still, you didn’t have any trouble breaking bread with him, did you?”

At that moment the elevator stopped at Mildenhall’s floor. He exited quickly, giving Brian no chance to answer. The scene of his worst confrontation with the General back at his old agency flashed in his mind, the self-righteous tone and the sour face.

He never thought about Ken and Mildenhall’s wife again, but the General’s threats stayed fresh in his memory.