Giant Solidarity G/T

Chapter XXV. Orion's Belt-Burster Buffet

During the beginning of twilight hours, the collective appetite in the car became ravenous. Harley and I had mainly had beer for lunch. Crystal, Alma and Rey ate a good amount of quesadillas, but were hungry again nonetheless. Understandable, since being their size in a world as big as this, carried scads of physical requirements and burned a lot of calories. Our plan had been a nonstop drive to the lake. Five stomachs, two giant, three tiny, made for an uncomfortable ride, though.

"That place has a drive-thru," observed Rey, pointing to a passing burger joint built in the shape of a sailboat. At this time, I drove through a line of plazas and mini malls at a convergence of highways near the Buttonwood border. Our three tiny calorie-burners in the backseat were doing some food sightseeing around the clusters of shops.

"Drive-thru usually means fast food, doesn't it?" Crystal said, after I bypassed Burger Boat. "No, come on. No fast food. I owe my life to my physique I can't risk getting out of shape before going to this new colony."

Alma put in her two bits with "It'll probably be a good idea if we ate some fish and vegetables anyway. Get ready for the diet we'll have by the lake. What about that seafood place? Or I think that's a vegan restaurant by that hardware store."

Rey's blonde, chickpea-like head shook in my rearview, uncertainly at Alma's suggestions. "I don't know, I feel like we still need more caloric reserves than that."

After five consecutive minutes of this blither, sitting in inchmeal traffic, I had grown tired and achy from the drive. Plus, I became aware of the thunderous tempests of my own stomach juices. Harley had said numerous times he would be fine eating anywhere. Unhelpful. "How about here?" I gestured to a small plaza at the next night. Between a home-improvement store and a bookstore, there was a large place with a half-full parking lot called Orion's Belt-Buster Buffet. Prices advertised were very reasonable and the overweight huntsman pictured on the sign seemed satisfied. "Buffet, lots of variety, everyone's happy."

"Orion's Belt-Buster," said Harley, as I found a parking space. "Isn't this the place Laura at work mentioned last month?"

"Believe so," I said, getting out of the car and sniffing the air. "I think I smell those ribs she raved about."

Still being in the Buttonwood district, Harley and I each discretely concealed a Ride-along under our hoodies. Rey and Alma swung around my neck feeling like necklace beads with heartbeats. I tried to walk slowly so their little frames didn't get hurt thumping into my sternum. Crystal allowed Harley to hang her from his neckwear too. I hoped this meant time was healing the Petra wound. Actually I hoped we'd all reconcile a little before reaching the lake. Walking across the parking lot, Reagan peered out from under my collar and I heard her make a comment to me. Something about recognizing a beige hatchback. I didn't quite catch it, preoccupied keeping a lookout for giants spotting our illegally uncaged tinies. With so many parking spaces occupied due to the dinner rush, I also surmised the crowd of diners would make it easy to hide in plain sight.

Reaching the entrance of the buffet, I hesitated, seeing the handbill posted above the OPEN sign. No Dogs, or Humans Permitted. Underneath the notice, somebody had handwritten astipulation: Caged OR otherwise. Evidently some giant or another triedto bring in a caged human, to the management's chagrin. Perhaps the giant wassomebody like Mark from my apartment building, who adopted the human for therapeutic company. Previously I would've stopped here and convinced Alma, Crystal, and Rey to wait in the car. We'd bring them to-go bags of food from the buffet. After my little pseudo-intervention at the rest-stop, I instead ignored the sign and pulled the doorhandle, discretely smuggling in Alma and Rey.