By Your Side (Twenty One Pilots)

Delightful Day

Tyler and Josh pulled up in front of a small storefront on a side road just off the main street. The front wall was mostly just window, with a ornate frosted glass door perfectly in the center. An old wooden and faded sign hung above the door. It read “Delight Bakery, Traditional Pastries and Breads” in a beautiful carved script font. Tyler was already in love with the place.

The two of them walked inside and were met with surprise. The gorgeous hardwood floors were covered in years of dirt and grease. The tin ceiling was a muted color, mostly likely hiding a deep forest green under all the dust. The counters were cracked and the display cases broken. The best part of it all was the beautiful smell coming from the back room and the handwriting on the old chalk menus that matched the sign out front.

Tyler turned to Josh with a hesitant look on his face. “And how long did you tell them I would work here?”

“Relax,” Josh smiled. “The guy is great and you’ll love his kid. Super talented.”

Tyler sighed just as the owner came from the back, wiping his floured hands on his apron before reaching out to shake Tyler’s.

“I’m Matt. The owner of this once fine bakery. You must be Tyler.” Tyler smiled as the guy shook his hand. He was in his late forties, a bit of scruff on his face a short cut dark hair. Tattoos littered his arms, all delicate swirls and mixes of bright vibrant color. Tyler could see the head of a chinese dragon poking out from the color of the man’s shirt. His eyes were gentle and kind, with smile lines rimming the outside. He was a happy guy, Tyler could tell. Full of love. “Josh was telling me all about what you can do. Think you’ll be up for helping us out?”

“Yeah, totally.”

“Great, my son’s in the back finishing up the bread for today. I’ll show you around.”

Josh waved goodbye and headed off to who knows where while Tyler washed his hands and entered the back room.

“We don’t actually get a lot of customers, as you can probably tell, but we have a few regulars who’ve never given up on us,” Matt explained. He seemed to really care about what he was doing. As soon as he was back behind the counter his shoulders relaxed and a small smile was present on his face. “At the end of the day we donate everything left over, which granted isn’t a lot, to the local homeless shelters. We don’t save anything for more than two days. Those people out there didn’t end up there by choice, so I try to make it a little easier on them.”

Tyler already liked the guy.

“This is my son, Owen.”

Owen looked up from the bread he was kneading and smiled over at Tyler. He had a crooked smile but straight teeth, with freckles dotting his face. His glasses had thick black rims and his hair, which was a lighter brown color, was a tousled mess on top of his head. Tyler assumed Owen got it from his mother, but other than that, he looked like a younger version of his father.

“He does all of the bread here. God knows why but he was gifted with his mother’s talent for it. Kid makes a mean cinnamon chip.”

Owen smiled and went back to work, pushing up his glasses with his shoulder.

Matt went on to point out where each of their stations and ovens were and where the recipes could be found and how to run the dishwasher. It was some old contraption left behind by Matt’s great grandmother and the cost to replace it with a new one would cost more than the bakery was worth.

“Besides, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Tyler liked the place. He loved Matt and Owen. They were such kind hearted who really cared about what they were doing. Tyler wanted to help them as much as he could.

That night Tyler went home and told Josh about how he thinks he’s going to love working there. Before bed Tyler took his journal and glued down the polaroid he took of the bakery’s front and wrote down Matt’s and Owen’s story. He didn’t want to forget this day.