And We Meet Again

32. Solving The Mystery

CHAPTER - 32

SOLVING THE MYSTERY

There are some places in life that we wish we could visit again and again; and there are places that we wish we could never visit again even if that place holds some nice memories. As I stared at the yellow illuminated board in front of me, I couldn't decide that in which category did Becker's Burgers fall.

I observed that it was no more 'improperly' named. In fact, it looked a lot better maintained as compared to what it looked like all these years ago. A bigger change was the name of the diner. The new and improved name 'Becker's Food Territory' was proudly displayed in front of us.

"Wow!" Kim breathed beside me. "I never thought Martin would get so better with time. This is so cool." There was an unconcealed surprise in her voice and she sounded genuinely happy.

"Yeah," I murmured back as we started taking steps from the small parking lot towards the place where the word 'Dinfast' was originated.

"Martin! Come out, you old man!" Kim started calling him in a very excited voice the moment we took two steps inside the now improved and with better interiors diner.

A chuckle escaped my lips when I noticed that the place had broad tables now as compared to the narrow tables of years ago. "Nice tables," I murmured under my breath but apparently, I wasn't as slow as I had wanted to be as Kim lightly chuckled at what I had said. Shooting a smile towards her, I sat on one of the nearest tables.

The place was not completely empty as I had expected it to be. There were two more tables that were occupied; one by an elderly couple and one by some buff and gruff looking five guys. Undoubtedly, they all were looking towards Kim and me with slight irritation on their faces as Kim had so nicely managed to disturb them and divert their attentions from their meals to us.

Shooting a small smile towards them, I grabbed Kim's arm to stop her from using her high vocal chords."What?" She frowned as she looked at me.

Before I could reply to her unnecessary question, the owner of the diner came out. "Kim?" The surprise in his voice was evident. Forgetting about my hold on her wrist, she turned around making me lose my grip on her and ran towards Martin. She hugged him and he laughed, hugging her back. I had no clue that they were so close to each other but the happiness on Martin's face gave it away. I couldn't see Kim's face as her back was towards me. Once they were done with their reunion hug, they parted away and came towards me. Martin's eyes landed on me and once again, the surprise was very clear in them. "Keith!" I smiled at him and nodded my head in acknowledgement. He looked between Kim and me for a few times and eventually muttered, "Well, this is... surprising."

Completely oblivious to the slight shock that Martin was going though, Kim in her very excited and chirpy voice asked him, "How have you been? Oh God! I've missed your burgers."

Martin laughed at this and said, "I'm happy that you missed something about this old man." She shrugged sheepishly in reply. "I thought you'd never come back." He looked at her with slight concern in his eyes. He definitely looked older than before.

Gone was the excited and chirpy Kim of two minutes ago, she looked at him with a sad smile and replied, "I thought so too." The questions about the sudden change in their moods were on the tip of my tongue but before I could voice them out, Kim opened her mouth again. "The usual! You remember it. Don't you?"

Martin let out a booming laughter at her teasing voice. "Sure Madame." He mock saluted her and with a last glance towards me, went back towards the kitchen.

Unwillingly, a sigh of relief escaped my lips and I gestured for Kim to sit down opposite me. With a huge smile on her lips, she started looking around the place with a very interested look in her eyes. We let the silence take us over as we waited for the 'usual'. She was lost in observing the interiors of Martin's now improved diner, while I was busy in my own thoughts.