GIMMIE MAH SQUID!
Type of entry: Short Story
Entry:
How the Iridescent Squids Get Their Color
By all quantitative statistics,
Eric was a pretty average 16 year old guy. A few months back he had managed to earn his driver's liscense, and not even mess up the first time through! In order to pay for gas, which translated to freedom as long as he kept his grades up, he took a part time job at McDonald's. The register work was brainless, the customers were just about always rude or treated him like a robot at best, and being greeted each shift by lugging 50lb boxes of frozen french fries up stairs was beginning to take a toll on his back.
It is doubtful that any kindergartener tells their teacher 'I want to work at McDonalds when I grow up!'. So using the bittersweet experience as a stepping stone, Eric took a chance and stepped into
The Shipwreck Cove, as if the red and white 'HELP WANTED' sign in the window was calling him by name.
Even though it was a half an hour until the restaurant opened, the door gave when he tried it. Inside the place was decked out in a nautical theme, and he was greeted by a tall man with wavy grey hair and large circular glasses. With his perfectly white chef's apron he still had more of the look of a mad scientist than someone you'd find at a restaurant "Oh HO!" his voice bounced around the large dining room, devoid of other humans "Congratulations for being such an eager one, but alas you still have a half an hour to wait, we are not yet open for business."
Eric raised an eyebrow and struggled to say anything aloud about what a nutbag this loony must be. He surely can't be the owner! His right hand swept his dark brown bangs out of his eyes and he said, his voice cracking embarassingly "I actually here about the job!"
"Oh terrific!" the chef said in elation, clasping his hands together. "It is so hard to find
and keep good help these days! I am Earl, the Maestro of the orchestra known as our kitchen, the audiences come from miles around! And you are...?"
"Eric." "Well, Eric, It is a good thing indeed that I like you because you're hired! Of course you will start out as a bus boy but everyone must work their way up the food chain! Now don't give me that look, lad, I know how to run a business, and I am
not a looney!"
Before he knew what was happening, Eric had started work that very night. The restaurant proved very sucessful, the specialty being the house soup. Every single bowl he cleared from a table was practically licked dry and he couldn't quite figure out why. Plus there was plenty of eye candy to keep him entertained,
Jennifer, a blonde server, and
Stacey a firey red-headed hostess.
Eric did notice magazine articles, newspaper articles, and awards at all levels on the walls framed in glass praising The Shipwreck Cove for its modestly named "House Soup". Many have claimed it makes them feel intelligent, creative, or perceptive after eating it. Some old couples bragged about how they came every weekend, like the soup was their lifeblood.
The first week past slowly. Then, on the next monday,
Stacey's partner mysteriously quit. She seemed dazed, and lifeless, but she still managed to throw her smock with the logo down in the middle of the floor before practically bumping into Eric on her way out.
"Congratulations my boy!" the eccentric sounding voice rang out through the room "You've been promoted to being a host! After today, I do expect you to be more properly dressed for someone of your station." and started laughing for some bizarre reason. "Does this come with a raise?" Eric asked. "Yes, of course!"
The next week proved to be more interesting. He learned that for one, Stacey believed her old partner was stealing the tips for the to-go orders, so she made her look bad, time, and time again. She was practically glowing as she said this.
Secondly, Eric got to see first hand how much people loved the soup. He would try to offer them menus, tell them about the specials... but who can afford fifty bucks a pop for soup?
On break he confided to Jennifer in back. She was preparing some soup. "So what's in that stuff anyways?" "Well..." she said with a short giggle of embarassment as a flush came to her normally pale cheeks "I'm not sure exactly. It looks enough like chicken and stars soup... the broth smells generic, there are carrots and celery and chicken bits, but instead of noodles in the shape of stars there are these little cubes. Eric picked up one of the iridescent cubes with his finger and thumb and held it up to the light. It practically glowed purple and blue. He then sniffed it and dropped it onto the ground. "Ugh, gross!" He prodded the squishy cube with the toe of his boot, expecting it to move, then picked it up and threw it away and washed his hands. "Is Stacey always such a bitch?" "Well for some reason this restaurant does have an odd turnover rate. I wouldn't be surprised if she was behind even more!" Jennifer said. "Right, well on that note I better get back to work before she reports me!"
In the shadows, the lanky figure would have been invisible to the naked eye, except for the light that reflected from his round frames. It appears that the youth had an audience for their conversation...
The rest of the night went well enough. "Oh Stacey!" Earl's voice rang out as the kitchen crew members were all in a variable state of cleaning and leaving. The girl on fire practically skipped down the table to Earl's office, where he shut the door.
Once inside, he told her "Have a seat dear, have a seat, we're not strangers after all." Stacey was excited. Was she going to get a promotion and raise? "You do know of the natural order of things... survival of the fittest, the food chain, etc, do you not?" She grinned, nodded, and couldn't help but look like a shark herself. "WELL!" Earl said, slamming a box the size of a cooler down on his desk "You have been acting out of place. One must learn to crawl before they can learn to walk. If you want to kiss the sky you better know how to kneel." "What's up with all the proverbs?" she countered in a snooty manner.
It was at this point Eric's hand was about to land on the glass of Earl's door when Jennifer's hand caught his and shook her head 'no'. Together they peeked through the blinds and almost jumped back as they heard Stacey let out of shrill "Eeww! Gross! You're... you're..."
Earl had just placed a live squid on top of her head it became entangled with hers, and her aura became visible, her very lifeforce flowing into the vampiric sea life. It also reached down and touched her crown chakra, spinning horizontally purple... it seemed to dim and the squid picked up a purple glow... then her third eye spinning verticallly blue... that color and vibrancy went to the squid as well. It knew well enough not to kill her, but the squid was truly an amazing creature. Glowing and shining with energy, intelligence, the ability to perceive. "No dear, I am not a nutbag, but I am a genius. I engineered these as my doctoral thesis. Amazing, no?" He removered the
iridescent jelly squid from her head and laughed.
Erin and Jennifer looked at each other in a silent scream. Eric's mouth was hinged open as if he was waiting for a fly to buzz in. Jennifer had both hands clamped over her mouth and her eyes were watering.
Energetic Stacey was reduced to a drone, and suddenly Earl's voice was raised so the two outside the door could get the message loud and clear "You two work well, don't ever give me a reason to fire you or what makes you shine will then be mine, and will make more of what shines as I feed it to countless hungry customers!"
This is the dark secret of the squids. If you do look at even a piece of them just right, you can still see the purple and blue glow. The Shipwreck Cove is indeed a nice place to eat, but you really wouldn't want to work there.
-Fin-
