AUTHOR: Aditi
EDITOR: Mia
ARTIST: Nika
Drip, drip, drip. The sound was agony to Vera. So was the sight of the juice, dripping its way down to the smooth tile floor below. The pool of orange on the otherwise white floor would be a dead giveaway that there was a spill.
Vera dabbed at it, desperately trying to soak it up with a blue towel. Within seconds, the whole towel was a yucky brownish color. The spill was spreading, forming little rivers and pools over the floor.
“I’m so sorry about that,” the man at the table said, sheepishly, “I can be a little clumsy at times.”
A lot clumsy, actually, thought Vera.
“Nathan,” called a middle-aged lady from the door, two tables away, “come on! You only graduate college summa cum laude once, young man!”
The man glanced at Vera again, then walked to the door and left with his mother.
Fortunately, they were the last customers, and now Vera could clean up the mess in peace.
Unfortunately, the towel was doing nothing to clean up the mess, and Vera got up to get another one. She was tense as she put the brown one in the laundry bag to be washed and grabbed a fresh blue one from the rack. Her boss would probably see the mess and, for the second time in two days, lecture Vera on cleaning. It would be her last chance, and she would be fired.
Fortunately, there was no sign of her boss, an eternally grumpy man with a hooked nose and a sneer the size of Texas. He usually only came to check on the restaurant a few days a week- he owned another restaurant on the other side of town, and split his time between the two.
The other waiter gave Vera a sympathetic look as she passed with the towel.
Cleaning up a spill was not a quick task, nor was it a fun task. As she pushed and pulled the towel across the floor, Vera wished she was back home.
Her glittering childhood had been filled with adventures in an enchanted forest. She would frolic with fellow elves among giant mushrooms, sprinkle pixie dust on herself so she could soar like the fairies did, and try to tempt the pegasi grazing in the meadow with soup, even though she wasn’t supposed to.
Her curiosity about the human world overwhelmed her almost two years ago, though, and she had eventually left the world of magic to pursue a life in the realm of humans. It had been hard, the first few weeks. She had had to make up a cover story to explain why she was all by herself, without any family. The first time someone had asked, she had told them the truth….
She knew now how naїve it had been, to arrive in the human world for the first time and expect such narrow-minded creatures to believe the truth.
Now, though, she would give anything to go back to the enchanted forest. She missed everything, even getting in trouble from her parents every time she tried to hop on and ride one of the pegasi in the meadow. There was one that she longed to ride, a pretty gray roan one with a midnight blue mane and joyous golden eyes.
The closest she could get to that now was a horse- there was a gray one with a dark mane, one that looked just a little bit like the pegasus she had dreamed of riding back in the enchanted forest. She had only gone riding once, though. She loved it. The smell of horses and earth, the breeze in her face, and the feeling of freedom. She wished she could do it over and over and over.
But she couldn’t. Her salary was barely enough to cover rent for the small, one-bedroom apartment she lived in, food, and other basic necessities. If she took regular riding lessons, she’d be broke.
Vera kept scrubbing the spill. The new towel was already brown after having soaked up the orange juice, and there was still so much left. She would have to hurry-
“And what do we have here?”
Vera froze. She turned around slowly. “Mr. Daniels,” she said, rising. “It’s nice to see you here.”
“And why wouldn’t I be here?” sneered Mr. Daniels. “It’s my restaurant. And it should be spotless.”
“Yes, sir.”
“We reopen in two hours, and if I see so much as a speck of dust or dirt or juice or whatever was spilled in this restaurant, you will be fired.”
Vera had been bracing herself for Mr. Daniels to scream that she was fired and that she wouldn’t be getting that month’s salary due to her incompetence (it was only the first of March, and she only got paid on the last day of every month). However, she suspected that there it was hard to find new waiters these days- Mr. Daniels had put up a HELP WANTED sign three months ago, and not a single person had inquired about it.
“Yes, sir,” Vera said, nodding so much she left like one of those bobblehead figurines she saw at the toy shop next door.
With one last glance (more of a glare, really) at her, Mr. Daniels walked off toward the kitchen.
Vera released the breath she’d been holding. She’d survived- and she hadn’t been fired.
She kept scrubbing. Yes, the towel was already at maximum capacity for the amount of orange juice it could soak up, but if she went to get a new one now, she would have to deal with the wrath of Mr. Daniels. It was better to just keep scrubbing until Mr. Daniels left (which would be in a few minutes, hopefully) and then get a new towel.
Ten more minutes of mindless scrubbing. The floor wasn’t spotless, and the towels weren’t cleaner. Mr. Daniels was still in the back, probably taste-testing the day’s chef’s special and giving her about a hundred corrections like he usually did. Vera was surprised the chef hadn’t quit.
But then again, the chef did not get minimum wages. And she probably liked cooking a lot, because she had been working at the restaurant for years (she had told Vera when Vera was first hired), and she didn’t seem to have the slightest notion of quitting.
Maybe the other waiter was going to quit sometime soon. He didn’t seem to like working at the restaurant very much.
Then again, Vera didn’t either, and she had been working at the restaurant ever since she arrived in the human world, and wasn’t planning to quit-
Neeeeiiiigghhh!
Vera’s head snapped up.
Nnnneeeeeeiiiiiiigggggghhhhhh!
She couldn’t believe her eyes. It couldn’t be.
But it was.
Vera let go of the towel, being careful not to step on the spill as she rose to her feet.
The bell at the door jangled as it opened and closed.
She didn’t have any notion of leaving, but now that she had seen it, she couldn’t fathom going back.
Everything felt right as she mounted the gray roan pegasus, and she never looked back as it began to gallop, wings outstretched.
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