Bit 7
The owner of Corks Restaurant
The owner of Corks
Restaurant had a vision. Not only would his restaurant
serve fine food, but also it would have the largest number
of varieties of wine in town. And for every bottle of wine
that was opened in his restaurant, the owner saved the
cork and did something with it. He strung it into strings
of corks and made curtains; he tacked them to the wall and
sound proofed the downstairs bar; or he whittled the corks
down and threw the pieces on the floor.
Cynthia thought the food
at Corks Restaurant, whose slogan was "Corks, Where the
Sun Never Sets In Promisetown!", was okay. And the wait
staff, though handsome and straight out of GQ, was as dumb
as posts. Worse than that, Cynthia Wiles Hemingway thought
the downstairs bar at Corks was bleak and ugly. Corks
everywhere, she felt like she was trapped on the inside of
... well, she didn't know what, but whatever it was she
was trapped inside of was deadly quiet. The corks
protruding from the walls had the effect of making you
feel like you were either wearing earplugs or had the
mother of all head colds.
While she waited for
Ruby and Max to arrive -- they were all going to have
dinner upstairs -- Cynthia observed some of the townies
interacting with tourists. Deciding there wasn't very much
interaction, she switched her attention to a woman sitting
off to the side. She was a big-boned lady with a small
head, perfectly coiffed hair, and the largest hands
Cynthia had seen on a woman. The woman was by herself and
was taking short sips of a red liquid, which Cynthia
presumed was Campari. The woman's outfit was neat and her
make-up was applied with care.
Moments later, Ruby and
Max came down the steps of the bar. Ruby saw Cynthia and
started heading right toward her. However she stopped in
her tracks when she saw the woman Cynthia had been
watching.
"Marlene!" cried Ruby,
"I haven't seen you in ages!"
The woman, Marlene,
looked up and smiled at Ruby. "Miss Less," she said, “And
it's a good thing to or I would have asked you for the
money you owe me!"
"You're such a camp,"
said Ruby, "A camp and a half, for sure."
"Why don't you just tell
it to the whole room?" Marlene said, smiling as she did.
"Dear heart," responded
Ruby Less Begonia, "There isn't a person in this room who
doesn't know about your debts to me or that you're a
camp."
At that point, the woman
named Marlene, spotted Max, who had been standing off to
the side observing the scene. "Why, hello Max," she said.
"Hello Marlene," said
Max. "We still on for Thursday evening?"
"Of course, Max,"
replied Marlene, "I wouldn't miss your home cooking for
the world."
"I didn't think you
would," said Max, smiling like the cat that got the
canary, "I didn't think you would."
Cynthia, who had been
enjoying watching and listening to this, found great
satisfaction watching the woman's Adam's Apple bobbing in
her throat as big as life.
Next: Bit 8
"Tell us a secret, Max," said Ruby
