Rare Treats

A Chapter by nrshrews

Chapter 5

Turns out it turned up quite a bit of profit. The glass sculptures were from some noteworthy artist, apparently. It's felt like forever since Ive had a heist that fed everyone for a week, and then some. I decided I could afford to spoil myself. I walked to my favorite restaurant, Louie Saleni’s Italian. I hid my new fancy clothes for the time being, as I realized I should lay relatively low after last night, so I was once again in rags in a real restaurant. I sat down at a table, and pulled out the notebook that girl had given me. I wrote “MY NAME IS RIVER, I AM MUTE” in huge letters on the first page. Then I flipped the page and wrote my order, “a salad and a large bowl of spaghetti.” Why I hadn’t thought of writing down everything to talk to people, I don’t know, although it could be because I’m not the world’s greatest speller.

A young pretty waitress came to me for my order. I flipped through the notebook for her. She nodded and went back. Louie Saleni walked over, an old man with a heavily corrupted Italian accent . “Hey, River! Long time no see!” I nodded.

“Anything you want, River. Everythin’s always free for you!”

Louie was a good man, an honest businessman who fell on hard times. So I played Robin Hood a little bit, helped him with his bills, and now he thinks he’s eternally indebted to me somehow, which is actually pretty nice, if not a little embarrassing.

I showed him the notebook order.

“Wow. Why didn’t we think of that earlier?”

I shrugged.

“Alright." He yelled out to the back, "Sue, could you go make him a batch of puh'shgetti for' me?"
Sue nodded tiredly. Sue didn't seem to be enjoying her job.

“So how’ve you been, River? Catch ya’ anything interesting?”

I nodded. Then I had an idea. I wrote down my story, of how I entered the building, how I found out about the party, where exactly I hit that runt when I threw the hammer, etc.; He sat down beside me and laughed as I wrote it. Turns out I’m not half-bad at storytelling if I get over the fact I can’t talk at all.

I looked around nonchalantly, and pulled out one of the statues I collected. It was a miniature statue of some woman, maybe the Virgin Mary, infused with white glass and gold. He stared at it in wonder.

“Wow. That’s somethin’, in’t it? You’ll have to find me one of them someday.”

I shrugged and gave it to him.

“I’ll put it right on the counter for everyone to see!”

NO NO NO NO NO. I shook my head apprehensively.

“Oh!... right. Then I’ll… bring it home and tell me' wife it’s a gift for her!” He beamed.

I nodded and smiled. I secretly wondered why on earth would a man as nice as him marry someone like her. I initially figured he was too afraid to divorce her because of financial reasons, but it seems like he actually really loved her, which would be beyond my comprehension, because she was a witch to him.

Sue the waitress ran toward us.

“Mr. Saleni! There’s a huge group of people coming in!” she whispered.

“How many times do I tell you, my name is Louie, not Mr. Saleni!” he said frustrated. He turned to me. “Ah, it's my after-church customers. I’d better get them. I’ll see you later!”

I waved “bye”.

A small legion of church kids came in. It was the church that occasionally helped our little slum out. I was hoping to see the girl who gave me my notebook. What was her name...

“Hi! I remember you! My names Ruth!” She popped out of nowhere, and I nearly jumped ten feet.

Ok. Her name’s Ruth.

I waved at her.

“Can I sit down with you?” She asked. Her voice was sweet and innocent sounding like a little girl, but she was my age.

I nodded. She sat down.

“So how’ve you been doin?”

I opened the notebook and wrote down “I’m alright.”

She nodded. “This is cool...” She said beaming.

I grinned stupidly. I showed her my first page, that said "MY NAME IS RIVER I AM MUTE

“That works.” She flipped the page to see my order.

“hm…”

She spent a long time looking at the notebook for some reason. Finally, she said “This is a really good story.”