How Long 'Til Black Future Month?

Harold sits across from three-time divorcee Yvette, studying the menu which promises to reproduce famous or favorite meals on request. Harold comments on the potential for inaccuracy in recreating such meals but Yvette dismisses this and tells him to “be impulsive for once” (241). A busty hostess approaches with a contract for Harold to sign. The contract demands that Harold not discuss the restaurant with anyone he isn’t going to invite as a guest. Harold hems and haws but finally signs.

Skeptical of the restaurant’s claim that they can reproduce any meal given only date, location, and reason for occasion, Harold orders the meal his ex-wife made on the night he proposed to her, certain that it will be impossible to produce without even a mention of the contents. To his great astonishment they perfectly reproduce the meal, causing his mind to fill with happy memories of his ex-wife.

Harold then asks to see the kitchen or the chef, but he is denied both. Yvette tells him to leave a good thing alone but the desire to know overwhelms him. He excuses himself to the restroom in hopes of sneaking into the kitchen, all the while knowing that he is causing a riff in Yvette’s trust.

He finds a set of stairs leading down to the kitchen. When he steps into the kitchen the kitchen morphs from modern to antiquated to his ex-wife’s college kitchen.

As he watches his ex-wife cooking, the hostess finds him and tells him he needs to leave the kitchen. She explains that all he is seeing is an image of his ex-wife; it is not actually her. She reminds him of the contract he signed saying he would not discuss this restaurant; she insinuates he will be considered insane if he does.

He returns to the table with Yvette full of “shame” over his intrusion (252). Yvette says she thinks it’s ridiculous he is chasing some phantom image of his ex-wife instead of just calling and talking to her. Harold feels regret over having ruined his marriage by giving his wife an ultimatum in which he wanted her to choose between him and her work; he also feels regret about breaking Yvette’s trust. He tries to tell Yvette about what he saw but she says she does not want to know.

As a way of making up for what he did, Harold sets Yvette up with a rich man he knows. He ponders her advice about his ex-wife and decides to call her.