Axiom (eBook)

A Cardinal-Wood Story

Anthony R Milton (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024
144 Seiten
101 Pieces (Verlag)
979-8-9901319-1-0 (ISBN)

Infos

Welcome to Cardinal-Wood, a place where science and spirituality intersect at your front door. Strange is the norm here. Don't worry about the nose bleeds, they'll clear up in three days and you'll feel good as new!

A.R. Milton is a Navy veteran who has loved storytelling since he was a child, beginning with trips to the library with his mother. Milton is the proud business owner of 101 Pieces LLC, which is the source of the A.R. Milton pseudonym.

Textauszug

1

Enter The Pit!

Eat. Drink. Sing. Leave your worries at the door and fall into … The Pit!

Zander Thurman slowly analyzed the chalkboard sign, giving his vision time to distinguish the yellow-and-pink lettering used to relay information at his place of employment. Below the welcome was a list of specials The Pit was offering for the day: $2 Corona, $3 Irish coffee, $4 rum smoothies. Zander shook his head in disgust as the numbers and letters of the drinks’ names and prices blended together like some alcoholic’s online gamer tag: $2Corona$3Irishcoffe$4rum. He ignored the food specials and continued through the front door.

The lighting in The Pit was, as its name suggested, dim with tinted windows that kept out any hope of daylight, even on a bright day like today. Zander’s eyes adjusted as he crossed the threshold. The blood-red carpet was the first thing the blur in his eye could focus on. A man no taller than six feet and mildly husky stood behind the podium in the waiting area with his head down, scribbling with crayons on a napkin. Zander’s eyes struggled to make out the host’s name on the tag that clung to his red vest.

“Who changed the sign out there?” Zander asked as he walked toward the podium.

“The sign’s been changed?” The man asked himself, more so than Zander. He scratched his head, hoping a memory about the change would surface.

“The Long Island Party bowl special is missing.”

Kyle. Zander was close enough to see his name tag now.

“You’re probably one of the few people in the city who enjoyed that, Zan. Besides, Bianca said she was takin’ it down after a customer got into an accident last week,” Kyle said, extending a fist. Zander reciprocated the extended fist to complete the timeless fist bump.

“That won’t stop me from making my own,” Zander said, smiling. “Is Bianca in today?”

“Yeah, check the kitchen. I think I heard her hollering at the cooks.”

Kyle lightly tugged on the golden rope to his right that controlled the red velvet curtain behind him, partly exposing the dining area. Zander peeked through and spotted a couple in the far corner. They were early enough to the Sunday brunch special to be the only ones seated. Both happily shared one menu while an extra one lay lonely on the table.

Plates shattering behind the door leading to the kitchen on the right resembled a mini-thunderstorm loud enough to shake Zander back into focus.

“If you see a random girl walk in here dressed in a uniform send her to the back. It’s my cousin’s first day,” Zander said, glancing back at Kyle.

“Say no more.” Kyle tugged the rope, opening the curtain fully. “The Pit awaits you, good sir,” he said in his best nasal butler impersonation.

The dining area of The Pit had the scent of wood polish and whiskey engrained into its wood floors. A red carpet leading from the entrance to the dining area overlapped the wood floor down the center, distinctly separating the room. Tables lined up on both sides facing the mini-stage the red carpet led to. As Zander made his way to the kitchen the sweet fragrance of lavender and honey—foreign to this place now, just as it was then—crept up his nostrils and took his mind to the night he met—.

“Zander! Shit!”

Bianca.

“You were almost late,” she said wiping a stain off of her vest with a paper towel. The door that led to the kitchen was still swinging, creaking in pain from the force of Bianca’s push.

“I don’t have to clock in for another fifteen minutes. When we actually open.”

She took her eyes off the stain and looked at him with a blank stare for two seconds before frantically wiping again.

“Can you go check on the customers, please? I have to grab my extra vest from the car.”

“How’d they get in if we’re not open?”

“They both walked in with their noses plugged up. Drove down from D.C. after visiting the monuments. Supposedly only came down here to visit The Pit after reading online reviews about our Sunday brunch. An hour’s hike from D.C. to C-W because of traffic and the gift of a nosebleed for their first time crossing our county line. Why would I punish them for being fifteen minutes early when I can just get on you for being fifteen minutes late?” she said, finally cracking a smile and giving up on the stain. The smile faded quickly. “Everything okay, Zander? You look exhausted.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just staying up editing videos later than I should. A keyboard has become my pillow.”

“Let me know if you need a break.”

“I’ll be okay. Hey, remember my cousin is starting today. I’ll get her up to speed in no time. You won’t even notice if I disappear.”

“I did put her on the schedule today. I hope you’re right, though, so I can fire you the next time you’re late.” Bianca said, the smile slightly returning as she walked toward the front entrance.

Zander chuckled and shook his head. “I’ll be sure to leave a good impression on our first-timers and the new bartender.”

“I know you will, Zander. Thanks,” Bianca said, passing through the curtain. Zander went his separate way toward the back room in the kitchen to get ready for the day ahead.

The lone couple in the corner was an older pair. They engaged Zander in a conversation about their two children who were long gone from their household and the vacations they’d been on since the beginning of the summer to Chile, Argentina, and Rome. They actually impressed Zander—it was only the second week of June. During the small talk, Zander could finally take their orders only after they inquired about each of The Pit’s fifty-two drink specials.

Zander wasted time liking pictures on social media while the couple’s food was prepared. He couldn’t fake a smile for another long-winded conversation, so he hoped some pixilated tits would at least give him a smirk.

Scroll

Like

Scroll

Like

Scroll

Like

Scroll

Like

Scr—

Ten minutes went by without a flinch. Zander’s thumb was getting Olympic-level training while he scrolled, but it was his eyes that strained and fell to fatigue first. He stopped at a photo of a woman in a white bikini with her back turned to the camera as she stared off into a sun-reflecting lake. The white of the bikini outlining the woman’s ass and the angle of the sun in the water was enough to make Zander’s eyes water. He set his phone on the counter and dried his face.

“You’ll go blind if you hold that thing any closer next time,” Kyle stated as he walked up to Zander, who was sitting next to his employee locker.

“Was it that bad?”

“Yeah, dude. Looked like you were trying to jump into your phone.”

Zander considered this as he remembered how close his nose was to the screen, even more so when his reflection failed to come into focus as he dried his leaking eyes in the mirror.

“I’m running on four hours of sleep, man. Been pulling late nights and early mornings editing the videos I shot last week.”

“Shit, that fight you set up at Chipotle was wild. They didn’t hit you with destruction of property for breaking that table outside?”

Zander laughed under his breath as he tossed the napkin with his eye fluids in the trash. “Thanks, man, but no charges. Only a million views to help keep the channel growing. My next few videos should put me on the country’s radar and keep me from being just a Cardinal-Wood icon. Helps that I have this sexy as fuck lead actress I’ve been scripting fights for. Ex-lover versus new lover’s girlfriend, ‘Clean-up in aisle six’—the Target rumble—and ‘Excuse me, I ordered the sandwich, not the wrap’—the Eden Gardens Royale. The world can’t get enough eye candy and she’s the whole store. I’ll get two million views just off her face alone.”

“Damn, dude, you got a ring for her yet?”

“Fuck off.”

“At least let me see a pic.”

“Don’t have one.”

“Let me see her Insta, then.”

“She doesn’t have any social media accounts.”

“The hell is her problem? She the only human without a brand to promote?”

“She says her life can’t be contained in a screen.”

Kyle made a face as if he was going to throw up, a dry heave with no sound.

“Alright, man, if you’re back here fucking around, who’s watching the front door?” Zander said, walking past Kyle on his way into the main section of the kitchen.

“Don’t worry about that. I gave your cousin her first assignment as a new employee.” Kyle said, smiling. “Told her to wait up there while I found you. No offense, man, but your cousin is kinda cute. She single?” he asked in a drawn-out, playful tone as he followed Zander out of the employee locker room.

“I...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 29.5.2024
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Krimi / Thriller / Horror
• Schlagworte: Faith • Horror • Science • Small Town • Spiritual • Supernatural • Thriller
• ISBN-13: 979-8-9901319-1-0 / 9798990131910