William had a scowl on his face as he rubbed at his elbow. The stone floor had not gotten any easier to fall on, even though he had been around the stuff for a few months now. There was no arguing with what Aceso had said. If he didn’t show up now there would be hell to pay. He would rather avoid all that nastiness if at all possible.
Dragging himself up from his place on the floor he grabbed his hygiene bag and got a clean pair of underwear from the dresser. He didn’t even bother with shorts today he walked down to the bathroom in his underwear.
About twenty minutes later William was walking down the street toward the cafeteria fully dressed. He was a little sore this morning and his body was still bone tired. If he didn’t have somewhere to be this morning, he would have gratefully gotten another two or three hours of sleep.
He made it to the cafeteria to find it a lot noisier than he would have guessed it would be at this time of morning. The clamoring and pot banging was all going on behind the food service counter and he gingerly navigated the long tables to made his way to the back of the building to see what it was that he was supposed to be doing this morning.
Glancing around amidst the steam and noise from the kitchen he stuck his head out in to a narrow walkway and almost got slammed in the face with a rather large mesh basket. William jerked back as Katherine stumbled to a halt. “Oh, Sorry, Will.” She looked down at the basket, having satisfied herself that none of the eggs inside it were broken she looked over at William again. “You’re a little late.”
William was still trying to recover from almost getting a basket slammed in his face. “What is going on around here?” William glanced back and forth looking for something. “Who’s in charge around here?”
Katherine looked back over her shoulder, “Somebody put Charles in charge...” She immediately snickered.
William felt a lopsided smile spread across his face as well. “That’s good, you’ve been working on that all morning, haven’t you?” Katherine shrugged with a grin on her face. William shook his head, “Wait a minute, what do you mean, late?”
Katherine took off walking at a brisk pace, “Yeah, you’re late! Go see Charles and ask if he needs any help.” She said as she disappeared around a corner formed by some kind of closet looking things on wheels.
William watched her disappear and wondered where the hell Charles could be. He slowly stepped around the big appliances and pottery that was just lying all over the place. He followed the sound of pans crashing together and running water. He passed by a massive stove and what looked like a fast food deep fryer. There was no fat in the fryer though and the stove griddle was cold. Where was breakfast going to be cooked, exactly?
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
William peered around another corner of the kitchen and saw Charles standing amidst a cloud of steam in front of a deep sink. William walked up behind his friend. Speaking loudly to be heard over the water, “Katherine told me to come and see you.”
Charles looked over his shoulder and a smile spread across his face. “What happened to you, Will? You get caught up in the sheets this morning?”
William scratched at his neck as the steam had already made him start to sweat. The question confused him and he knew that it was a joke of some kind but he had never heard that reference before. He shot back in a monotone, “I don’t have any sheets.”
Charles laughed as he turned back to his work in the sink. “Look, Will? I need you to go help Tara in the back. She’s getting the pork and bacon ready for this morning.”
William looked around dubiously. “Which way is the ‘back’?”
Charles pulled back from the sink and steam and leaned into William as he pointed. “Down that corridor and take a right when you hit the big metal door. It’ll be the big metal door to the right of that.” Charles went back to washing. He said over his shoulder, “If you get lost just call out for a girl named Tara, she’ll help you get where you need to be.”
The way he said it William knew that he was smiling at him. Ha ha, call for a girl named Tara? Wait a minute, isn’t Tara the girl from Acharya’s pack? He almost turned back around to ask Charles but just then he saw the corridor that he had been shown by his friend.
He walked down the corridor, trying to anticipate and get ready to dodge anything that might come flying out at him, like a basket of eggs, for instance. When he felt he was far enough away from his friend he called softly, “Tara? Tara? Are you back here?” There was no answer. For a moment William was sure that he had gone the wrong way until he saw a big metal door looming in front of him.
He didn’t have time to think about it too much as another unseen metal door off to his right swung violently open. The handle caught him in the side and he doubled over from the pain. A silent exhalation of breath escaped his lungs as he wheezed tiredly. The door fell back and flew open again. This time William was pushed off his feet, with a heavy grunt of pain. He fell back, crashing into a bread cart. Thankfully the cart was empty.
The noise of him crashing, brought a head poking out from around the metal door that had slammed into him. Tara stood there with her neck craned around the door so she could see what she had hit. William looked up at her. Her brown skin was covered in goose bumps. Her chestnut hair was a little frazzled. Her brown eyes were looking down at him with a little impatience. “William? What are you doing down there?”
William pushed himself off the floor and brushed at his arms and butt. He stood over the sage as he replied, “Charles, sent me here to help you with pork?”
Tara looked up at him while still halfway in the freezer, “Yeah, pork. Now could you help me with this door… so I can…”