Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club

Mariel narrates in 1996.

Shortly after the Lakeside closes, Brenda arrives, much to Mariel’s delight. Brenda offers to sell Mariel her homemade gin for the Lakeside. Despite her uncertainty about selling unlicensed alcohol, Mariel agrees. Ned arrives, causing Mariel to think of the first time she noticed Ned, when she was 11—a story she has never told her husband. When she secured his romantic interest later, something many Lakeside servers attempted, given the Pragers’ wealth, she felt she’d won.

Ned kisses Mariel hello, notes that she’s been drinking alcohol, and then realizes that she must have lost the pregnancy. Mariel ushers Brenda and a teenage employee, Mo, out of the Lakeside so she and Ned can weep together. Despite the struggles they’ve faced with IVF, both agree to try for another pregnancy as soon as possible. They resolve to keep future attempts secret until a viable pregnancy happens. Mariel tells Ned the story of the car accident and Florence’s stay at the church. Ned is impressed by Mariel’s refusal to retrieve Florence until she feels ready.

Mariel narrates in 1996.

In August, Florence has been at the church for more than a month. The Twin City Talker newspaper publishes an article on her stay. She has become a local attraction, with friends bringing her food, clothing, and entertainment. The town comes to call the church “Fort Florence.” Only Kyle and Mariel are against the spectacle. To Mariel’s surprise, Al confesses that he has been helping clean Floyd’s house, which Florence plans to inherit. Mariel feels she is losing the “one place in North America safe from her mother” (266). When conversation turns to Al’s pregnant granddaughter, Mariel is relieved to feel less upset thinking of others’ pregnancies now that she and Ned have resolved to try again.

Mariel visits her obstetrician to have another embryo implanted. She fears having to choose between the Lakeside and future pregnancy attempts because of financial considerations—much of Ned’s Jorby’s payout went to building their house, maintaining the Lakeside, and their first round of fertility treatments. Mariel spends her 39th birthday with Brenda, confiding her potential pregnancy when Brenda offers her alcohol. Brenda has made her a fancy cake, which moves Mariel to tears.

Mariel wants to go out, prompting Brenda to remind Mariel of Brenda’s unpopularity in Bear Jaw. Brenda had the affairs because she “like[s] sex” and knew that, with married men, it would only be a physical connection; she did not intend to “wreck any homes” (274). Given her pariah status, Brenda would “only eat at a restaurant if [she] hated it and wanted to ruin their day” (275), which gives Mariel the idea to go to Jorby’s.

Mariel narrates in 1996.

At Jorby’s, people notice Brenda immediately. Brenda notes several former sexual partners but doesn’t seem uncomfortable. Mariel, by contrast, struggles with her past connection to the restaurant chain. Her relationship with Carla became uncomfortable after Carla inherited the company, due to Carla’s extravagant but impersonal gift giving. Mariel feels that everyone affected by Gus’s death has moved on except for herself and Ned.

Ned doesn’t regret turning Jorby’s ownership to Carla, who has made it even more successful, but he is sad that this was accomplished without him. Mariel, meanwhile, hates that the Bear Jaw Jorby’s is successful enough to damage her own business. She looks at the menu and finds it lacking. Eventually, Mariel and Brenda realize they are being ignored by their server and act in increasingly outrageous ways to see what will make the staff pay attention to them. They gleefully steal and eat a pie. When Mariel notices the stares from other customers, however, she recalls that her reputation can affect the Lakeside. When they leave, she puts money for the pie on their table.

Brenda compliments Mariel on being a good person for leaving the money, but advises her to be devious when others disrespect her. Mariel decides to donate canned mandarin oranges, which Florence hates, to the church, rationalizing that her mother will be forced to accept the donation, lest she look ungrateful, but will refuse to eat them. Their presence will annoy Florence. Mariel feels slightly guilty but also pleased with her childishness, which she feels matches Florence’s immaturity. If Mariel doesn’t have another child, she considers leaving the Lakeside to Felix or Cayla. When Felix’s daughter proudly makes Mariel a birthday pie, Mariel eats some despite eating so much pie earlier that day.

Kyle visits the Lakeside, worn down by the noisiness of “Fort Florence” right outside his home. He is unimpressed with Mariel’s orange scheme, suggesting that Mariel talk to her mother, instead. Several days later, she encounters Hazel, who reports the circulating gossip that Mariel has been banned from Jorby’s. Hazel is astonished when Mariel is pleased at this news. Hazel is headed to “Fort Florence,” where Florence is “serving the world’s largest ambrosia salad” to use up the mandarin oranges, “generously” not even having any herself (287). The local news station is doing a report. Kyle, Mariel knows, will be furious.

Mariel teaches Ned to bartend so he can cover the bar if they have a baby. She truly forgives Ned for opening the Bear Jaw Jorby’s when she sees him working at the Lakeside. When Ned leaves the bar to help an elderly patron, he recalls the first time he saw the woman he thought was Mariel at the Central Minneapolis Jorby’s. Mariel, however, has never been there and claims that when she agreed it had happened it was only because of “falling in love with [him] so hard, [she’d] have agreed with anything [he] said” (290). Ned regains old confidence as he works at the bar at chats with regulars.

Al asks if his granddaughter can have her wedding reception at the Lakeside; their venue’s deck was damaged. Mariel agrees but refuses any payment, citing Al’s long-term loyalty. Ned, initially shocked, praises how the Lakeside can contribute to a community in the way that Jorby’s cannot. They look forward to the event, though Mariel dreads the ceremony itself, which will take place at “Fort Florence.”

Mariel narrates in 1996.

Mariel watches Florence’s news segment, which Ned recorded. Florence seems vaguely worried, to Mariel’s surprise, though Mariel isn’t certain why. Mariel decides to visit her local doctor, instead of the specialist in St. Paul, to discuss her pregnancy, determining to make the Lakeside her own. For the next several days, she makes large batches of the kind of food she likes and has Al deliver them to Florence and her friends, telling him not to reveal that they are from Mariel.

After three days of delivering meals, Mariel visits Brenda to report that she’s going to get Florence, much to Kyle’s relief. He posits that if Mariel lets go of her internal narrative about Florence, she can redefine the relationship in a way that suits her better. Before she enters the church, Mariel thinks about losing her father and the complications of reconnecting with the mother she blames for her son’s death.

When Mariel enters the church, Florence is unmoved, telling her daughter to wait for her to finish her crossword puzzle before they depart. Florence doesn’t want Mariel to sell the Lakeside; she “just wanted to be someplace [Mariel] could find [her]” when Mariel was “ready” (303). Florence claims publicizing “Fort Florence” was other people’s idea, not hers, and understands why Mariel didn’t want to see her after Gus’s death. Florence admits that she was a bad mother but asks to still be present in Mariel’s life. Mariel agrees.

Mariel and Florence sit together, drinking Kool-Aid sold by two little girls. Florence knows that the “organic health nut” food was from Mariel and guesses immediately that Mariel is pregnant again (305). Florence asks to hold the baby “even just once” (307). Mariel and Ned would accept Florence’s help with an infant, but Florence asserts that she “can’t be left alone with a baby. Not ever” (307).

Mariel narrates in 1996.

Mariel’s doctor, Theresa Eaton, had briefly been a Lakeside server before attending medical school. At her appointment, Mariel is relieved both to learn she’s pregnant and to hear Dr. Eaton’s repeated assertion that needing fertility treatments does not signify a personal failure. She commits to not feeling shame or fear about her fertility and so tells several people she is pregnant, instead of waiting as she and Ned originally planned.

Mariel makes her own recipes for Al’s granddaughter’s wedding. Ned is skeptical that they will be a success on the menu but is supportive. Mariel weeps when Al calls it “Mariel’s Lakeside Supper Club” (314).

Mariel narrates in 1996-2000.

Mariel does not change the name of the restaurant, especially after the birth of her daughter, Julia Ellen Prager. Mariel makes decisions about the Lakeside with her daughter’s future in mind. Mariel struggles with wanting to protect Julia at every moment, but refuses to repeat her own overprotected childhood. Florence cries when she meets Julia, though she still refuses to be left alone with her. Brenda babysits instead when Ned and Mariel work. Mariel finds herself more able to speak openly about Gus now that she has another child. On her way home one night, Mariel feels so tired from crossing the street that she lies down in her driveway. A passerby calls an ambulance, but Mariel, happy to have her daughter, is unconcerned even as she lies dying.