"That was delicious," Jen said. She was sitting on the trunk of Kevin's car, licking the remnants of a cheeseburger off her fingers. They were at a diner just off the highway - this diner, like several others, claimed to be the home of the original Maxwell Street Polish Sausage. Kevin had barely touched his burger (Jen's stomach rumbled as she thought of trying to eat that one, as well), instead eating one fry at a time out of the brown paper bag.
"Do you believe in karma, Jen?" he asked over the sounds of highway traffic.
"Instant karma's gonna get you," she said, smiling.
"No, I'm serious. Do you believe that good things happen to good people, and that bad things happen to bad people?"
Jen paused, pursing her lips. She fought back a belch and answered, "I believe that all things happen to all people. When good things happen to good people, we think they deserve it and put it out of mind. But when bad things happen to good people, we think 'Why?'"
"Do you believe in an eye for an eye? Tooth for a tooth and all that?"
"I'm not sure where this line of questioning is going, but no. Wasn't that Hammurabi? Didn't he pioneer that way of thinking? That was forever ago, and I'd like to think we've come far in the past several thousand years."
Kevin forced a smile. "Odd that you mention a thousand years."
"What does all this have to do with a cheeseburger?"
A semi blasted its air horn, cutting short Kevin's response. When it had passed, he said "I just really wanted to come here with you tonight. I feel badly about what I've done, and - this place was always special to me, and I wanted to share it with you tonight. To kind of say 'I'm sorry for being a jerk.'"
"Well, you're lucky that cheeseburger was so good." Jen smiled.
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