Tales From a New World

Chapter 3: Diner Dash

   Just to make a point pie is, in my personal opinion, one of mankind's greatest creations. Oh boy, how happy I was any time I got to sink my teeth into a fresh pie right out of the oven. As I sat there on my bed I could feel a strange vibration on my back and thus breaking my pie fantasies. I pick up my vibrating phone only to see that Ellen was calling me. "What does she want now?" I thought as I pick up the phone and press it to my ear. "Hello?" "Joker!" "Yes I am Joker." "Hahaha you are so funny!" What a good mood she was in that day, she sounded like she had just saved a kitten from being stuck in a tree or something.

"Joker are you busy?"

"No, why?"

"You should come with me to get dinner at Cosmo's."

Cosmo's diner, what a place to go. I would compare Cosmo's Diner to heaven, if you wanted some of the best home cooked meals of your life, that was the place to go.

"Oh my gosh yes! I'll be there in five." I hung up the phone and ran to my closet and put on jeans, coat and mittens ran down stairs and hopped onto my bike and sped off down the street. What a cold night it was, the street was starting to freeze over a bit which made riding my bike a very tedious activity. A few minutes later I arrive at the diner to find Ellen's bike in the bike rack. I looked in through the diner window to find a long pile of blue hair waving back at me. "She dyed her hair again?" I thought to myself, I walk into the diner and before the door even closes I got tackled by Ellen. "Hi Joker!" she was so excited to see me even though I had seen her at school the day before "Let's go sit," I said before she tightened her grip around my ribs. We picked a seat right by the window, I had a thing for liking to see the outside when I ate, it made everything more enjoyable.

"So how are you?" she asked with a huge smile from ear to ear.

"Well I'm pretty okay, what about you?"

"Well umm I'm excited and happy and hungry all at the same time! It's so wonderful!"

"And why is that?" I asked curiously.

Even for Ellen this type of excitement wasn't very common. She takes a breath to calm herself. "My necklace felt hot yesterday at my cousin's party." She reached into her shirt and pulled out her heart locket.

"You know what that means? Right?"

"Ellen we talked about this. There is no way that necklace can possibly tell you who your true love is. It's just impossible to predict something like that."

"Well I like to be a little hopeful Joker."

"Are you ready to order?" interrupted the waiter.

"Umm yes sorry. I'll have the Cosmo Burger."

"And I'll have a chicken sandwich." Some time passed after our meal and conversations that are a bit fuzzy to me because of how good that burger was.

Then I said, "Look my locket has never felt warm before. I honestly think that these things don't even work."

"Then how do you explain what I felt yesterday Joker? It was amazing, one minute I am drinking soda, the next I hear a heart beating and it wasn't mine then I looked down and my locket was glowing."

In my head I couldn't believe it, there was no way that these lockets worked because I never felt anything like what she was describing to me. Come to think of it, I had never felt anything quite like that in my entire life, kinda makes me jealous to think about.

"What should I do Joker? Should I just forget about it? Should I try to find the person? I have no idea what to do Joker."

She said this as if she wanted this more than anything in her life, which she probably did, I had never personally been in this situation before so I tried my best to say what I honestly thought.

"Well I think that you should just wait and see if it happens again, obviously they are somewhere in the city so I'm sure you will eventually find whoever it is."

I tried to sound as optimistic as possible when honestly, I really thought there was no way the locket worked and she was just making up the story. I looked at her face and she was completely zoned out staring blankly into the distance

"Hey, you ok?" I said with a giggle as I waved my hand in her face.

She snapped out of her trance like state and was frightened by my hand. She jumped a little and her eyes grew wide. "Oh!! Sorry." She realized what happened and smiled and laughed. As we were both laughing, I noticed an old man sitting in the corner of the diner. A waitress had just served him some apple pie and he took a moment to inspect the slice with great care turning the plate left and right to look at it more thoroughly, he even put on his glasses to get a better look. Then with all the care in the world, he picked up his fork and knife and cut a piece for him to eat. He then put the piece of pie in his mouth and a huge smile appeared on his face. The pie must be good if he spent that much time looking at it and was that satisfied with how it tasted.

"Hey who is that guy in the corner?" Ellen turns to look at him.

"I don't know never seen him before. Why?" she asked.

"Just wondering." I had not seen this man before either come to think of it I didn't even see him come in.

"Hey, let's go to my cousin's house. I really want to ask if she might know anyone who could have set off my necklace. You know if you want to come, you don't have to if you don't want to."

"Ok, I'll go with you, I have nothing else to do anyways so why not." We left the diner and retrieved our bikes from the bike rack and went off to her cousins house. Once we arrived at the house we knocked on the door, and her cousin answered. "Hi guys!"

"Hi Jenna!" reapplied Ellen. "I need to ask you something, do you have a minute?" "Uh... yea sure, come in." I noticed she seemed kind of reluctant to let us in. This made me feel a little suspicious, I decided to observe for the rest of this visit until I knew what was up. We entered her living room and sat on the couch.

"So whats up Ellen?"

"Well when I came to the party yesterday my necklace got hot."

"Wow! No way!"

"Yea and so I was wondering if you still had the party list here?" she asked this almost in embarrassment.

"Yea I still have it I'll bring it to you just give me a sec."

She got up and left in quite a hurry, Ellen let out a sigh and had spaced out again when I heard some whispering coming from the other room. I had gotten up to go see what was going on. I had peaked just my right eye around the corner when I noticed her talking to someone. I heard her say "Go hurry!" and walk to her back door and there standing next to her was Gomez in the flesh. He stood over Jenna and looked deeply into her eyes, kissed her and went out the door. I could see that Jenna had a feeling of longing for him as soon as he put one foot out the door. Then quickly, I walked back to my seat to a very spaced out Ellen. I snapped my fingers in her face and she awoke from her trance. Startled she blushed and looked up at me and said, "Oh sorry I did it again, didn't I?" Jenna entered from the other room with the list and handed it to her.

"I doubt you know everyone on this list, but good luck at finding him whoever he is."

"Thanks Jen, I really appreciate it."

Ellen and I left through the front door and we stood out under a street lamp as she looked over the list.

"Hey, is Jen seeing anyone?" I ask bluntly. In surprise she looks at me and says "I don't think you should have an interest in Jen, she wouldn't be good for you." "Why's that?" I asked a little surprised.

"Because she doesn't have the best reputation when it comes to relationships." "Well do you want me to go home with you or what?"

"No thats alright Joker. You go home, I'll be fine."

So knowing this I got on my bike and road home.