When Pigs Fly: Chapter 9

                My tears didn’t fall for long.  Suck it up, Nikki! I scolded myself.  You need to be strong.  You will find your family and you will find a way to save them!  Stop feeling sorry for yourself.  What if someone sees you like this?  I hated feeling weak.  I never cried in front of people.  Never.

                “Nicole?” Zeke asked.  His voice came from the floor next to me; it was still groggy from sleep.  I was struck again at how nice he had been; insisting that I take his bed while he slept on the ground.  “What are you doing up?  It’s still dark out.”  He yawned, emphasizing the statement.  When he sat up and looked at me, he asked what was wrong.  It was only then that I realized that I had pulled my knees to my chest and was now hugging them.

                Zeke’s expression softened.  “Nicole, tell me what’s wrong, please.” 

                My eyes welled up and I squeezed them shut and bit down on my lip, trying to keep the tears from spilling over.

                “Are you scared or something?” Zeke asked.  I knew that if I spoke, I wouldn’t be able to stop the waterworks.  I shook my head.

                Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t—

                I couldn’t hold it in any longer; I felt so hopeless.  I started sobbing and I hated myself for it.  Zeke was going to think that I was just some scared little kid.  Which, I guess, I kind of was.  There was no way he would respect me after this.

                “Shhh, shh, Nicole.  Come on.  Don’t cry.  It’s okay…”

                I felt movement on the bed and before I knew it, Zeke had his arms around me.  I didn’t care about what he thought about me anymore.  I needed someone to be with me right now.  I turned into his hug and sobbed against his chest.

                I cried for about an hour.  The entire time, Zeke was silent.  He just sat there with his arms around me, letting me ruin his shirt with my tears.  He waited to make sure I was finished before he spoke.

                “Nicole, why are you so upset?”

                I sighed.  “It’s kind of a stupid reason, actually.  I just had a dream—well, it was more like a memory—of the big fight me and my boyfriend had before breaking up.  I guess…I guess it just made me think…”  I paused and breathed a shaky breath in.  “Zeke?  If I ask you something, you’ll tell me the truth, right?”  I asked tentatively.

                “Always,” he answered.  He looked at me quizzically.  “What’s up?”

                “I…I’m never going to see them again…am I?” 

                Zeke sighed.  “I’m sorry.”

                I leaned my head against his chest.  I wasn’t…sad really.  I guess I had known all along.  The hopelessness filled me once again, but this time, I didn’t cry.

                I fell into a dreamless sleep just listening to the sound of Zeke’s breathing, his arms around me.

When Pigs Fly: Chapter 8

As Zeke and I walked down the corridor, towards the sleeping quarters, we passed a lot of people.  Zeke told me that everyone here was human, so I stopped freaking out every time someone passed by us.  Zeke also introduced me to them.  Caulin had come from California with his sister, Abbey and best friends Amber and Shawna were from Ontario!  There was also TJ, Dan, Tyler, Catherine, and the twins: Hope and Faith.

                “How many people are living here?” I asked.  I had counted thirteen so far and was already amazed at the number.

                “Umm…I think there’s about twenty,” he replied.  “Twenty-one now that you’re here.”

                It was more than I could have ever hoped for.

                “Showing her around, Zeke?”

                I froze as I recognized the voice that was coming from behind me.  It was the man Zeke was with when they found me.  Joe.

                I turned around to face him and blushed, remembering what had happened when we first…met.

                “Yeah,” Zeke replied.  “Nicole, this is Joe.  Joe, Nicole.”

                “We’ve met…” he said, wincing at the memory. 

                I turned a deeper shade of red.  “Sorry,” I apologized, “but, you really shouldn’t have scared me like that.”

                “Well I won’t be forgetting that lesson any time soon…” He turned to Zeke.  “Where are you taking her?”

                “I was going to try to find her a place to sleep.”

                “Well good luck with that,” Joe snorted.  “Pretty much everywhere is full right now.  Anyways, I have to go talk to Matt about the corn.  See you guys later!”

                As Joe walked away, Zeke turned to me.  “So, if the rooms are full, where are we going to put you?”

                “Well, I guess I can stay in the infirmary…I’ll be okay.”  I tried to suppress a grimace while I told him this.  Zeke saw right through my lie though. 

                “Nicole, I’m not going to make you sleep in there.  You can bunk with me for now.  Until we find a better spot for you, that is.”

                A small smile crept onto my face.  “Are you sure?” I asked.  “I don’t want you to feel like you have to or anything.”

                “It’s fine with me,” he assured me.  “Are you okay with it?”

                This was turning into a great day!  What started out as a day that would consist of me running from aliens, changed to me finding a home that was safe and filled with humans.  One of which was incredibly kind and understood me better than I did,

                “That sounds perfect.”

*****************

                As we walked out of the theatre, Christian held my hand.  I know that practically every teenager on the face of the earth says this, but it felt like my hand fit perfectly in his.

                Star Trek had been an awesome movie!  I always had been into sci-fi.

                “So, what did you think of the movie?” Christian asked me.

                “It was great; the perfect movie for our one year anniversary!”

                He kissed me.  “I’m glad you liked it,” he whispered into my ear.  I sighed contently.

                “I love you.”

                “I love you, too.”

                We kissed again; it was all very romantic.  When we broke apart, Christian took my hand again and we continued walking.

                “So,” I asked, “do you think it’s possible?”

                “Do I think what is possible?”

                “Aliens.”

                “Do you?”

                I nodded.  “Sure.  There are billions of universes and probably hundreds of billions of planets out there.  Who’s to say that Earth is the only one with intelligent life?”

                He gave me a stern look.  “Aliens are cool in movies and stuff I guess, but there’s no such thing!”

                “Why don’t you think it’s possible?”  Whatever answer I was expecting, it wasn’t the one he gave me.

                “Because it’s a stupid idea.  I’ll believe aliens exist when Big Foot parties with me and pigs start flying!  There’s no such thing as aliens and anyone who believes in them is an idiot!”

                I glared at him.  “So now I’m an idiot?”

                “Do you believe in aliens?” he asked me, as if that answered my question.

                “God, Christian, when did you get to be such a jackass?!” I yelled.

                “A jackass?  Geez, Nick, you really are stupid!”

                “Don’t call me that!  I can’t believe I spent an entire year with you!” I spat.  “I should have known better!  My mom was right about you—“

                “Well,” he interrupted.  “I guess being a bitch is hereditary!”

                I gasped; now he was calling my mom names?!  He had gone too far.

                “Screw you, Christian,” I hissed.  “Good luck finding someone else that will put up with all of your crap!  We’re through!”

                As I stormed off, I could hear him yelling obscenities after me.

                When I got home, I ran upstairs and locked myself in my room.  My anger had melted away.  All I was left with was despair and I couldn’t hold it in any longer; I cried.

                Moments of Christian and I flashed through my head as I sobbed, ending with that fight.  I was torn.  On the one hand, I couldn’t believe that I had spent so much time with a dick like him.  I should have seen it coming.  On the other hand, I had just broken up with my boyfriend of a year—on our anniversary to boot—and it hurt. 

                It’s for the best, I chanted again and again in my head, trying to stop the tears from falling.

                God, my life was such a mess.

***************

                I woke up crying and disoriented; the memory of me dumping Christian still burning strongly in my mind. 

                Well, Christian, I thought as the tears streaked down my face.  I hope you had a good time with Big Foot.

My Book: Chapter 7

Chapter 7

                As I sat with Zeke, eating macaroni and cheese—seriously, how did they get this stuff?  I could never get food this good when I was running—I thought about Ben and his brother, Jason.  I felt bad for bringing the subject up with Ben, but there wasn’t really anything I could do about it now.  When Zeke first told me that Jason was Ben’s brother, I obviously needed to know more.  Zeke wanted to get something to eat first, but I talked him into telling me the story.  I can be pretty convincing when I want to be…

************

                I dug my heels into the ground.  “Pleeease!” I cried.  “C’mon, Zeke, just tell me about Ben’s brother!”

                “Later, Nicole.” He protested.  “Right now I’m starving!”  Zeke continued to walk away, so I sat down, still holding onto his wrists, attempting to keep him from leaving.  He looked down at me, snorted at my stubbornness and threw me over his shoulder with a resulting “oof” from me.  He started walking towards the mess hall.

                “Zeke, long nails hurt a lot more than you would expect them to when stabbed into a person’s back.  Now, you have exactly five seconds to put me down and tell me about Jason or, so help me God—“

                Zeke stopped, set me down and looked me in the eyes.  “Nice try but, you have your nails chewed off.”  Dammit!  Why did he have to notice everything?! I thought. 

                “You really want to know about Ben’s brother, don’t you?”  I nodded.  Sighing, Zeke sat down against the wall.  “Fine.  But promise me we’ll get food after.”

                I raised my right hand.  “Scout’s honor,” I replied, sitting across from him.

                Zeke rolled his eyes.  “Alright.  So me, Ben, Jason, Floyd, and Neil—you’ll meet them later—were on a raid.”

                “A raid?” I asked. 

                 “You know, a raid.  When we run low on food or supplies we go and raid some houses.”

                “Oh.”  Well don’t I feel stupid, I thought.

                “Anyways,” he continued, “we had already been gone a few days and were just about ready to come back.  We were just going to stop at one last house.  What we didn’t know was that the Seekers were expecting us.”

                I shuddered.  It didn’t matter if you were on your own or with twenty armed guards.  The Seekers—they’re basically parasite cops who hunt down humans—scared everyone.

                “The house was dark and the parasites that lived there had left a few hours ago, so we made our move.  Ben and Jason were keeping watch outside.  Floyd, Neil and I went into the house—the back door was unlocked—and headed straight for the kitchen.  We were filling up our satchels with food when we heard a loud bang outside.  I was the first one out the door.  I saw Jason on the ground by a gun, lying in a pool of blood, and Ben trying to fight off three Seekers at once.  Floyd and Neil came outside and we easily killed the Seekers.  I told the guys that we had to book it out of there before more Seekers arrived, but Ben was in hysterics.  He threw punches at anyone who tried to get him away from Jason’s broken body.  We tried to calm him down enough to get him out of the yard, but we couldn’t take Jason with us, and Ben wasn’t going to leave without him.  I could hear sirens coming, so I panicked.  I knocked Ben out and we carried him back to the Jeep, leaving Jason’s body behind. 

                “It was months before Ben spoke, or even looked at any of us again.  I felt horrible for doing what I did, but we couldn’t lose both guys in one night, and we didn’t have time to get Jason’s body out of there too.  Ben spoke to Floyd and Neil long before he spoke to me again.  He only just started talking to me about two months ago.”

***********

                I was still speechless. 

                “Nicole, you haven’t said one word since I told you about Jason.  Are you okay?” Zeke asked me.

                “Yeah, I’m fine.  It’s just…I don’t know what to say.  Poor Ben.  I can’t even begin to fathom the amount of pain he must be in.”

                Zeke raised an eyebrow.  Seriously?!  How does he do that?  “Fathom?”

                “Yes, fathom.  It’s a good word.”  I sighed.  “I just feel horrible now.  I shouldn’t have brought up Jason.”

                “Don’t worry about it,” Zeke assured me.  “Ben won’t hold it against you.  You didn’t know.”

                “But—“

                “Listen.  Ben will get over it.  He isn’t mad at you for not knowing about something...are you finished eating?”

                I handed him my empty bowl and he brought it over to the dish bin along with his own.  When he came back he said “Come with me.”

                “Where?” I asked.

                “We’re going to find you somewhere to sleep tonight.  Unless you want to sleep in the infirmary…”

                I jumped up and grabbed Zeke’s wrist, pulling him out the door.

                “Let’s go.”

Menu Test Part Deux

I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED!!!!! *dances happy dance, fires confetti cannons, unleashes the hounds* ...that last part MAY have been too far...but ya.  I passed my menu test!  It may have taken me 2 tries...but i did it!!  I'm now OFFICIALLY into the restaurant!!  HUZZAH!

Also, sorry that chapter 7 is taking so long...but I'm having a bit of trouble getting it JUST right...don't worry though!  It will work!!  ...eventually...

My Book: Chapter 6

                As Ben walked towards me, I took a step back.  Zeke planted both of his hands on my shoulders and moved me so that I was standing in front of him.  Was it strange that I felt safer with him touching me?  No, it was just because he was the first human I had seen in years…right?

                “She’s still pretty freaked out, Ben.  She’ll calm down if you show her your neck,” Zeke told him.

                “Of course,” Ben replied, doing so.  Seeing that his neck didn’t have a scar did calm me down quite a bit.

                “She has a name,” I said to Zeke.  I held my hand out to Ben.  “Hi.  I’m Nicole.”

                Ben shook my hand.  “It’s nice to meet you.  If you would have a seat...”  He gestured towards the cots and I groaned.  “Is something wrong?” He asked, looking concerned.

                I sighed and sat down on one of the cots.  “No offence, but I’ve never really liked doctors.  Even before the aliens.  Doctors mean needles and blood and being sick.”  I shuddered.

                Zeke laughed at me and I shot him a dirty look.  Ben interrupted before I could say something I would regret.  “Don’t worry,” he said.  “I doubt there’ll be any need for needles.”  He gave me a crooked smile.  “Unless you want me to put old Zeke here out…?”

                I laughed.  “No, I guess he can stay.”

                Zeke rolled his eyes.  “Gee, thanks.”

                Ben started the check-up; it was like a regular doctor’s visit.  He checked my eyes and throat with a flashlight and felt my glands. Then he started putting pressure on my arms, back, and neck asking if anything hurt.  The answer was always no.  That was, however, until he got to my ankles.  They had both felt fine, until he squeezed the left one. 

                “Does this—“ he started, but then stumbled back, his hands pressed to his nose.            

                “OW!!” I cried out, clutching my throbbing ankle.  It hadn’t hurt until he applied pressure to the sides of it, and kicking Ben in the face didn’t make it feel any better.  “Sorry, sorry, sorry!!!—Oh man, that hurts!—I’m so sorry, Ben.  I didn’t mean to…it was just…reflexes, you know?  It was a total accident!”

                “That’s alright,” he said, his nose gushing blood.  I felt myself turn green and looked away.  I knew that if I looked at the blood any longer, I would throw up.  Zeke was doubled over, laughing his head off.

                “I’m glad you find our pain amusing, Zeke,” I said as sarcastically and as venomously as I possibly could, wincing when I moved my foot.  “But, could you please go and find us some ice?  …or a towel for the blood?”  My stomach started to churn.

                “Why?” he asked, an evil grin plastering his face.  “Does blood make you feel sick?”

                “Go before I kick you in the face!” I ordered.  Why did he always have to be right?  I scowled.  Zeke left and I turned back to my still throbbing ankle.  Great, I thought.  It’s already starting to swell.  I grabbed the pillow from the cot I was on, folded it in half, and stuck it under my ankle, elevating it. 

                “How’s your nose?” I asked Ben, my eyes carefully avoiding his face. 

                “It’s stopped bleeding.  You can probably look now.”  I did.  There wasn’t any more blood on his face.  He had thrown his shirt in the corner so I guessed that he must have cleaned himself up with it. 

                “Again, sorry.” 

                “Seriously, Nicole,” he replied.  “It’s okay.  How’s your ankle doing?”

                “It’s swelling.  I just need some ice; I’ve had worse injuries than this, believe me.  I’m kind of accident-prone…”  I trailed off not wanting to get into the embarrassing details.

                “Well I’m glad that you’re okay…mostly.  Let me wrap up your ankle for you.”

                As he carefully bandaged me up, Ben told me about how he had ended up here. 

                “Jason and I were best friends.  We did everything together; we even started medical school together.  My parents had gone to a dinner party while we were staying at a neighbour’s.  While they were gone, we hid a baby monitor in the living room of my house, thinking it would be funny to make weird noises; you know, freak them out.  But when they came home, we heard them saying all kinds of weird things about ‘the invasion’ and ‘implanting when the children get here.’  I thought for sure they knew what we did and were trying to freak us out.  I grabbed Jason’s binoculars and looked through the blinds.  That’s when I saw their scars.  Me and Jason knew the stories were true, so we ran.  We’d actually first found this place when we were kids and came here on vacation.  We came back, knowing that no one else knew about it.  We were the first ones.  There you go,” he said, finishing wrapping my ankle.  It looked better already.

                “How long ago was that?” I asked.

                “Almost four years.”

                Then a thought occurred to me.  “Who’s Jason?”

                A dark look fell across Ben’s face.  Someone cleared their throat and I looked to the sound.

                Zeke had come back with ice.  “Don’t worry, Ben,” he continued.  “I’ll fill her in.”

                Ben nodded and left quickly.  I could tell that something I said bothered him.

                “What did I say?” I asked Zeke.

                “It’s not really what you said…Jason’s just…kind of a touchy subject for Ben.  He died less than a year ago; a raid gone wrong.”

                “That’s so sad,” I mumbled.  “Losing his best friend—“

                “He wasn’t just Ben’s best friend,” Zeke cut me off.  “He was his brother.”

Response to Sparknotes Article: "Against Tipping"

This is in response to that very VERY wrong post about not tipping.  I'm sorry ChloeChum but you are COMPLETELY wrong about this.  I am a waitress and I have a few things to share.

1) Yes, we DO do a good job most of the time.

You don't actually know how hard it is to serve someone until you've done it.  I didn't think it would be hard at first, but there is a lot more to it than just bringing someone food.  You have to find them a place to sit, give them the menu, know that menu forwards, backwards, and sideways (in my restaurant, we have 21 different kinds of burgers AND 14 different wing sauces.  FOURTEEN!!!!!!!), treat extremely stupid questions like they are great ones (ex-"Is there any wild game in the 'Ostrich Burger'?", "Does the soup come with a spoon?", "Oh, I didn't know there was meat in the beef vegetable soup..."...These are all questions I have actually gotten!), know all of the short forms for the food to help communicate, and bring the order to the cooks.  That's not even the half of it!  If your place serves alcohol, you have to know how to mix certain drinks, what beers and wines you have, how to pour and open everything, you also have to bring drinks over without spilling them.  Next, you have to keep watching all of your tables (I have had 11 at once before and I was by myself!) and keep their drinks filled, check on them, see if they need anything, bring them their bills, and bring them their food.  Which brings me to my next point:

2) The Food

The food is obviously one of the most important aspects of the restaurant.  You are juggling big, heavy, HOT plates all over the place, remembering who is eating what, keep track of what has to come out first, what sides come with the foods, the holds (ex-no tomatoes), and do all of this without dropping anything.  

3) The Bills

The bills suck at my restaurant.  We have to do EVERYTHING by hand.  So we have to know how much everything costs, extra charges for whatever, charges for substitutions, we also have to figure out the taxes and apply them to the bills, bring the bills to the correct tables at the right time, and ring everybody out WHILE watching all of your other tables, filling drinks, and bringing food out.

5) The customers!!!!!

You do NOT know how horrible some customers are until you serve them.  Keep in mind, you are helping these people for over an hour most times.  Here is an example:

Me: Alright ma'am.  Here are your menus.  Just to let you know our special today is--

Her:I don't care about that!  Just get me this, this, this and this to drink.  only 3 ice cubes in each glass!

Me: Not a problem.  *brings drinks over*  Here you go.

Her: *orders food*  Now, with the burger, I don't want a bun.  Also, no fries, tomatoes, or lettuce.  And also give me some soup.  What was your special!?!??  You never told me!!!

Me: *getting irritated* It was this.  I'm sorry I didnt tell you earlier.

Her: Well you should be!  I dont want that anyways!  

Me: Alright.  *brings order back, food is ready, brings food out* There you all are.  Can I get you anything else for the moment?  

Her: No.  

5 mins later:

Her:  MISS!  MISS!! *flagging me down while I'm taking someone else's order.

Me: Sorry I'll be there in just a second.  I just have to finish taking someone's order.  *I finish, bring the order to the cooks, and go over to see her*  Sorry about that, how can I help you?

Her:  My daughter doesn't like this.  Bring it back.  Bring me this instead!

Me: *growling in my head* Sure.  not a problem.  It will just be a few minutes.  (keep in mind that the restaurant as packed and there are a few orders ahead of this one.

20 mins later

Her: *walks up to me* Where is my daughters food!?!?  She is hungry!!!

Me: Sorry about that.  I'll go check on it.

Her: Hurry up!!

Me: *i go check on it and it gets finished.  i bring the food out and give it to the daughter*  There you go hun.  sorry about the wait on that.

The lady: It DID take a long time!

While dealing with customers, you HAVE to smile and treat them with loads of respect!  She didn't even end up tipping on a $70 bill!!!!!  AND we gave her the meal her daughter didn't like for FREE!  You have to deal with customers like this ALL of the time and not strangle them or spit in their food.  Do you know how hard that is?  DO YOU!?!?!?!  I get it that everyone has bad days, but don't take it out on your servers.  We are your serVERS, not your serVANTS!

6) Paychecks.  

As servers, we LITERALLY live off of our tips.  We don't get paid minimum wage BECAUSE we get tips!  Where I live (Canada), minimum wage is $10.25 and I get paid $8.90.  Plus, we don't even get to keep all of our tips!  There is something called a "Tip-out" where we give a certain percentage to the cooks.  For me it's 15%.  

7) "Thank You"

After saying it all day and night, 24/7, the words "Thank you" loose their effect.  Sure it's nice to hear, but tipping says "thank you" in a much bigger way.  If you have a horrible customer, and they tip you like, 25% of what the bill was, you KNOW that they enjoyed their stay.

Sure we take pride in our work, but the "little extra something" brings MORE value to it.  It most definitely does NOT devalue it.  Ask any server and they will tell you the exact same thing.  Trust me.  Now, would you like that steak medium, rare, or well done?

stupid_nickel

Cakes