Salvage The Kingdom

Chapter 1

Alfred Finley stacked the last bottle on the shelf.

He had been working at The Diner for three years now. Nothing exciting ever happened on the job. Well - on the weekdays anyway, when everyone got off work and was too tired to party.

The weekend is where the parties began.

No one liked the weekend shift better than his best friend William Davis.

See, Alfred couldn't stand having to take the weekend shift. Being an introvert and all, his idea of fun was to stay home and watch tv.

"What happened to all those line ups I got you?" William asked.

"Oh, you mean all those girls you tried to hook me up with? I don't know." He tried to sound innocent but failed.

"Come on, Alfred." William laughed. "You know what I'm talking about. That could have been an opportunity to meet the love of your life."

"You mean get rejected?" He scoffed.
"Yeah, no thanks. Admit it, William, you don't set me up for dates. You set me up for failure."

"Not true. I'm your best friend."

"Who could kindly stay out of my love life please."

"Alright, alright." William raised his hands in defense.

They both went back to cleaning up.

A couple days ago, William had a bright idea to make it his mission to get Alfred a girlfriend. So, William being William he set him up on some blind dates with his choosing instead of letting Alfred figure out it out for himself.

"Look, man." He broke the silence. "I'm just trying to help. You're a pretty lonely guy, thought you could use some help."

"I could if you'd just do your job as being my friend, not a pimp." Alfred said.

William burst out laughing. "What does that even mean, Alfie?"

Alfred turned bright red. "Nothing. Let's hurry up so I can get home now."

Closing time couldn't come faster. They both locked up and made their way home.

On the way their, they ran into Mrs. Miller. The old lady who ran the library.

Alfred loved Mrs. Miller. She was a sweet woman who always didn't close up whenever Alfred visited the library and would trust him to lock up.

"Need some help with that, Mrs. Miller?" William gently took the box from her shaky hands.

"Oh, why thank you, boys." She said as Alfred grabbed her keys and locked the door for her.

"No problem." He replied.

"We were just on our way home. Do you need us to walk you?" Alfred asked.

"If it's not any trouble, please."

As they turned to walk away from the glass doors, inside the the library, Alfred thought he caught a glimpse of a tall figure behind one of the book shelves. He didn't say anything though.

"Cool night, isn't it?" William stated.

"I suppose it is." Mrs. Miller responded. "I don't live far from here, so I think I can walk the rest of the way."

"You sure?" Alfred asked.

"Thank for your help, but I believe I've got it."

William handed her the box and Mrs. Miller made her way to her house.

Alfred and William continued walking along.

"Tell you what," William started, "If you go on a date with one girl for an hour, I'll-"

"No way."

"You didn't let me finish." William whined. "I was gonna say-"

"You were gonna say that you'll leave me alone but we both know that you won't."

"You know me so well."

The two continued their walk in silence until they reached Alfred's house.

"Well, here we are. Your home sweet home." William said. "You ever gonna move out from your mother's?"

"One day. Right now, with what's going on, I can't leave my mother alone."

"You're a good man, Alfred." William said thoughtfully. "Tell your mother I said hi."

And with that, William hurried along the street to his place.

Alfred quietly opened and shut the door.

He didn't know if his mother was asleep or not.

"Alfred is that you?" His mother called from the kitchen.

He walked and was greeted to a sight of messy hair and a flour splattered apron that covered a middle aged woman that can only be known as Marie Finley.

"Hi, sweetie," she greeted, "how was work?"

"Eh," Alfred shrugged. "Same old, same old."

He plopped himself down on a stool by the island.

"What are you making?" He asked.

"I'm experimenting."

"Very well."

The two fell in silence as Marie was kneading some dough until it was broken.

"Hey, I have a question." Alfred said hesitantly.

"Ask away."

"What happened to dad?"

Marie was quiet. She stopped kneading the dough.

"I was just wondering."

She smiled at him sadly. "Let's not ask questions we don't want answers to."

"But I want an answer."

"Please, Alfred." She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "Don't ask."

He was quiet this time as she went back to kneading the dough.

"Fine." He said getting up from the stool. "Goodnight."

"One day," she said. "You'll have an answer one day."