Between the Lanterns(3)
He started to get up and gather his coat to leave, but Samantha was not about to allow this old gentleman to leave the diner on an empty stomach. She couldn’t really afford to buy him the slice, and there was no way Tara would let her give it away. Samantha was just going to have to hope she wouldn’t get caught.
“You sit right on down and eat this pie, sweets,” she whispered in his ear. “It’s on the house since you’re such a handsome fellow. Just don’t tell the boss lady, ok?”
Tara wasn’t technically the boss; she was just in charge of the financial side of the diner. But he didn’t need to know all that, so Samantha winked at the old man and he grinned bigger than he had for years.
Even if she did get caught, even if she had to pay for the slice of Cheryl’s Famous Chocolate Pie out of her tips for today… she felt it was damn sure worth it just for that warm smile.
“Thank you so much, ma’am. I really do appreciate your kindness,” the old man said. “I wish there were more good people like you in this world.”
Samantha rubbed his shoulder and leaned down to whisper again in his ear, “Just between you and me, sweets? I don’t plan on paying for this pie. So, actually, could stealing a piece of pie for a stranger be considered kind? I’m not so sure.”
“Honestly, ma’am, right now I can’t think of any kinder act in the entire world. Thank you, again,” he said softly, not wanting to get the nice waitress in trouble.
She gave his old shoulder a pat, tossed him one last wink, and headed off to fill more cups and take away some plates.
-
August was on his way back to the hardware store. Again. In the past few weeks since they had first met, he had really gotten his apartment in decent shape. August had fixed all of the light fixtures, so they all had access to the wireless Tesla generator, instead of just the one in the kitchen and bedroom. That was a welcome fix, as now he could use the bathroom at night without… unfortunate consequences.
He had patched the holes in the walls and put down some throw rugs to cover the scratches on the floor. Most bachelors would either be wealthy enough to stay at a much nicer place, or just not care one bit about a crummy-looking apartment. August just liked to do something with his time, honestly. He loved to work with his hands. He wasn’t much of a maker, yet. August wanted to invent tech; he just didn’t trust himself enough. He was pretty damn adept at fixing things, though. If something broke, August could make it work as good as new, or good enough.
He was pretty good at odd jobs and fixing up stuff at home, but August’s real talent was with machines. That was funny to most people he knew because he didn’t seem to like machines all that much. He didn’t own a Nutricator for one. He also had a cellphone instead of a SmartChip. August refused to have one of those things implanted in his ear. He helped make them in the plant outside of town, and he saw how dirty some of the fingers were that touched those chips. “NO THANK YOU, SIR,” he would say.
August had modified his cellphone to function like a SmartChip, though. It used Tesla power; so it never needed charging, and he connected it with the Montek.Communication satellite for free unlimited calls and Net surfing. It wasn’t exactly legal, but no one would care if one little guy was piggybacking off of a multitrillion-dollar conglomerate.
Today he was headed back to the hardware store, not to buy anything, but to go out back and see if they had thrown anything useful away. It wasn’t against the law to dumpster dive, and he had found a lot of great stuff back there before; like wood to fix his floor with, a handsaw to cut the wood, and lots of broken power tools that he could fix or take apart to scavenge pieces. He had no real plan or idea of what he wanted to find today; August was just bored and wanted something to do. He walked down West Main Street;, just like he had every single day since the night, he met her.
Every day he walked between the lanterns and looked for the beautiful Asian woman with freckled skin and shoulder-length hair that swished when she moved. He thought of her often. Her dark eyes with a bit of brown, her smile that was a little bit higher on one side, and the way she had called him, “sweets.” It was driving August crazy. He dreamed about this woman nightly, he thought about her while working on the assembly line at the plant, he pictured her sitting next to him while he ate his simple daily lunch of processed Nutricator sandwiches, provided free of charge by the company.
He had to find this woman. But August didn’t know how. So for now, he walked down West Main Street every day hoping to see her again. As he walked down the road, avoiding the automated sidewalks, of course, his cellphone buzzed in his pocket. It was an automated message from Shop.Montek.Com.
Don’t forget that today is the First Annual National Nutricator Day! We ask that you celebrate by supporting a local restaurant instead of using your Nutricator. While we appreciate your continued patronage of our wonderful products, we also want to help support local businesses like restaurants and hard-working farmers. To show our support, we’ve attached random amounts of Credit to each message sent out! Some will have enough to feed a family of ten and some only sufficient for a cup of coffee or a slice of pie! The only way to find out is to head to a local eatery, and check in! When you do, you’ll receive Credit into your account earmarked only to be used at the restaurant where you checked in! Hurry up, though, as this offer is only good for today! HAPPY NATIONAL NUTRICATOR DAY!!!!