(Dante P.O.V)
After walking absentmindedly for an hour, I hear my belly rumbling and I decided to find something to eat. Looking around, I found myself in the middle of the city.
Within the bustling city, the streets were filled with people and the noise made by them could be heard everywhere. On both sides of the streets were towering buildings and there were plenty of restaurants. I search for a decent restaurant that can satisfy me, Mmm this restaurant looks luxurious. I walk inside the luxurious looking restaurant only to be stopped by a fellow with a 'Ron Burgundy' moustache, in fact he looks like the actor and even his clothes are similar. I presume he is the host of the restaurant.
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(3rd P.O.V)
The host looks at Dante, then said " Good afternoon sir, do you have a reservation?"
While the host was waiting for Dante's answer, Dante was in his own little world thinking dazedly about what the host said 'Oh I forgot! Luxurious restaurants needs a reservation... My family usually just do it for me, Ha! I have really been reliant to them. But there is no need to worry, good thing I left at this age because I might have gotten overly reliant on them. I need to remember that from today onwards, I will be independent!'
Dante stared blankly for a few seconds only to be awakened by the host's words
"I'm sorry sir, you can only eat here with a reservation because as you can see, we are fully booked." The host says, with pride in his tone while horizontally stroking his moustache.
Dante looked at his moustache for a moment then looked at his face and said "No, it's fine I forgot that you need a reservation at this place. By the way, good job on looking like 'Ron Burgundy' specially with your reddish maroon like suit."
Dante gave him a thumbs up and as I was turning around to look for another restaurant, he stopped me and say " Really? Haha! You know what? you're a nice guy. How about this.. if you're looking for a nice restaurant, I'll give you the address of one of my favourite restaurant besides this restaurant."
Dante looks at the host writing something on his yellow sticky notepad, which he ripped a note and gave it to Dante. Dante took the note then raised his hand attempting to shake hands with the host. The host did not disappoint and shook hands with Dante.
Dante said his thanks and bid farewell to the host, then he made his way onwards to the address that was written by the host.
After following the address, he found an indoor small eatery.
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(Dante P.O.V)
'I'm not sure if that guy has a grudge on me but why did he recommend me to this tiny eatery? Sigh, whatever... I'm too hungry to complain anyways, I'm going in.'
'Hmm despite being a small eatery, it sure is packed in here. What? what the f*ck is that line?!'
Inside the eatery, there is 4 medium sized wooden tables with each table having 6 small red plastic chairs. The whole tables and chairs took half space of the eatery, but the shocking thing about the eatery is the waiting line. All the seats are taken but there are 15 people standing, 5 of them are lining up and the remaining 10 is eating while standing.
(A/N: Picture will be here in this particular comment)
'This is crazy, why can't they just order take out and leave rather than staying in this crammed place? And people are still ordering? Well, whatever I am too hungry to think about it. I'm going to line up.'
After a few minutes, it is finally my turn. I look at the menu and decided to eat their specialty, mac 'n' cheese and good old fried chicken. I shift my head and look at the owner, she's a short old African-American lady with grey hair and a few white hairs, looking at me with eyes filled with warmth, she said with a sweet southern accent" What can I get ya' sweety?"
Despite asking casually, I felt the gentle motherly aura that surrounds her that makes you feel comfortable. I asked gently" Good day ma'am, can I get two fried chicken drumsticks and a big plate of mac 'n' cheese please."
She smiled widely and say in a happy tone" That's wonderful love, I promise ya' my soul food is well known for being the best throughout my hometown! Wait for a while sweety, I'm gonna go get your food."
After she said that, she went to grab two chicken drumsticks in the rectangular steel tray where you can see a lot of chicken drumsticks being stacked together in an ordered fashion, after that she proceeds to take a large amount of mac n cheese in the mac 'n' cheese container, you can see the humongous amount of mac 'n' cheese shining brightly because of the reflection of the light bulb.
After ordering, I looked around to find vacant seats. Fortunately, there was a person that's about to leave, I looked at the people that was eating while standing and saw that they have no intention to sit on the chair because either they we're about to finish eating or they just got used to standing and didn't mind eating while standing. After I sat at the chair, I saw the owner smiling warmly with the plate of food on her hand and a cup of water with ice on the other hand, then she start to walk towards me.
She put the plate and cup of water down with her trembling hands and said with a sweet voice. "Here it is darling, enjoy the food."
"Thank you ma'am, I surely will." I replied with a gentle voice.
She smiled and went to the cashier workstation to take the orders of other customers.
I turned my attention back to the food, 'Hmm, it looks decent but what about the taste?'
I picked up the spoon and grabbed a chunk of mac n cheese then raised the spoon towards my mouth. ' H-How can it be!? It ta-taste.. it tasted ORDINARY! I thought there was something special on it, The perfect mac 'n' cheese should have pasta that is not mushy and does not swim in a pool of watery sauce, but is instead generously coated with Cheddar-cheesy, buttery goodness. The cheese should taste like cheese and should not have overly sharp, sweet, or artificial flavours. But this mac 'n' cheese while it does not swim in a pool of watery sauce, the texture is bad, it can be described as a mushy texture then giving a second bite of the mac 'n' cheese, the texture was rough with the not enough melted cheese inside the mac. The cheese wasn't properly mixed and the heat control was terrible as it gives the food half mushy half rough in the texture.
Next is the chicken, it looks like a proper fried chicken with a crunchy texture and there's a little bit of oil dropping in the plate.' I picked the chicken drumstick with my hand and raised it near my mouth to bite.
*Crunch*
*Crunch*
'As expected, the chicken drumstick is ordinary too. Fried chicken should be crunchy, crispy, savoury, and juicy but this fried chicken while the skin is crunchy, crispy and savoury, the meat was simply dry and there's no juice coming out of it. Sigh, I think she doesn't tenderise the chicken meat because she's the only one here and tenderising the meat will take a lot of her time and energy.'
Looking around seeing happy faces of people, I realised that no wonder the place is full and packed, they didn't come here for the food. They came here for the atmosphere, the atmosphere created by the grandma's aura that strangely makes you feel at home.
As I finished eating the 'ordinary' food, I drank the ice cold water then grabbed the plate and the cup while standing up from the seat and walk inside the dish-washing room to wash the dishes in a skilled manner, as washing dishes/silverware is essential for being a good cook, washing has been deeply ingrained in my bones with 11 years of experience it has become second nature to me.
"You don't need to wash the dishes sweetheart, just put it there and I'll wash it later" the owner said behind my back.
"It's fine ma'am, by the way, your soul food is really delicious, and I can taste why it was the best on your hometown" I shamelessly replied with a straight face.
"Really? then why did I see your face frowned while eating my food?" she replied with a knowing smile.
I froze a bit then blamed myself for being too hungry and losing self-awareness of my facial expressions. I look at her knowing smile and decided to change the topic with an awkward smile" Hehehe... ma'am if you don't mind me asking, why didn't you hire any employees?"
A sigh escaped from her mouth then she said in a sad tone" It wasn't always like this you know...
When I was a kid, I dreamt of owning a restaurant of my own and manage it like momma, and long story short, I met a guy and we clicked so we got in a serious relationship for 15 years until he proposed to me and gifted me this restaurant. But a year after our marriage, while he was running the restaurant smoothly, he suddenly collapsed. We took him to the doctor and the doctor said it was cancer. A year later he is surviving through chemotherapy, weakly laying on the bed he said to stop the treatment because he can't take the pain anymore. After stopping the treatment on his last day, I can see his relieved but sad expression, he said to me" Dear, you don't have to worry about me, on the contrary I worry you will be too sad and do something regrettable. Please live your life to the fullest, as I can always wait in heaven. Goodbye my love." After he died, I dedicated my life to this small restaurant waiting for the day I meet him again." she cried after she told her story.
I gave her a tight hug while wondering' Hmm what a sad story, sigh, I have to be careful with my words in the future, but why did she suddenly opened up to a stranger? Was she holding her emotions back? Sigh, that's why people need to release their pent up emotions or else they might affect the mind and snap, good thing I released my emotions through confronting my family face to face or else my emotions would've pent up and be like batman, depressed and the only thing that he can use to lessen his stressful emotions is through fighting bad guys but he doesn't kill them just to release them afterwards, because who else can he use to calm his depressing emotions?
Feeling her crying stop, I unhug her and say" It's fine, I'm sure he's always watching you, besides you're a good person, and didn't he say live your life to the fullest? He was not asking you to live your life for him... He was asking you to live your life for yourself."
As she was about to cry again, I quickly say" Don't cry or else you'll look ugly and your husband might haunt me if he found out that I made you cry. Besides there's a lot of customers out there waiting for you."
She smiled warmly to me with tears glistening in her red eyes, she say" You brat! who are you calling ugly! Haha, I'm sorry if I got a little emotional... I guess your right, he did say that I must live my life to the fullest. Thank you for listening to this old bat and for listening and giving me a hug, you don't have to pay for the food. Goodbye dear, I can hear the customer's angry rumbling"
After she said that, she quickly went outside of the dish-washing room to calm down the angry customers, leaving me here standing with a hanging opened mouth.
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(A/N: As I've said the story will be extremely slow to maintain quality, so for at least 2-3 chapter I will write about his journey on his world till he dies -
( hint: a certain automobile that we all know 🤣🤣🤣)
I'm a newbie writer so please bear my mistakes if there are any in this chapter or any in the future chapters.
Also as I have a busy schedule, I decided to just publish the chapters straight after writing them, because I probably won't have time to stack some chapters.
Thanks for reading 😁😉🥱)
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