“Speak of the devils, welcome back boys!” She cheered, stepping behind the counter as their leader stepped up. “I take it that you’re here for another try at the gold?”
The 19-year-old made a strange grunting sound in the back of his throat, dipping his head only slightly but the waitress seemed able to translate these gestures regardless.
“Take a seat boys, I’ve got you covered.” Her voice was filled with laughter as she turned around to enter the kitchen. Danni couldn’t see if there was a chef inside there but soon the room was filled with the sounds of something being prepared. At their table, the boys were reaching for their wallets, piling up a small pile of bills that they passed to their leader.
“Alright, do we know how we’re going to tackle this?” One of them muttered. Danni didn’t want to eavesdrop on the conversation, but she was just too damn curious! What was this gold they were going for? Some sort of eating contest? Looking around around the room, she realised that there was an array of signs hanging above the counter, shortened version of the menu with far better drawings displaying their offers. In the centre, there was a magnificent looking sundae that boasted of being comprised of 7 different flavours, chocolate and caramel sauce, four full sized slices of cheesecake, marshmallow, brownie and strawberry skewers, topped with whipped cream and underneath was written the challenge.
GO FOR GOLD!
Try to tackle our gold standard challenge!
Finish this dessert in 30 minutes and it’s free!
What in the world was this? Was this a regular thing for these kids? None of them looked like they were old enough to be out of school. What were they doing here? Shouldn’t they have been at home? The sky outside was dark enough for the lights in the café to be shrouding their faces from all who may look in, plus they had guarded against the wind with thick coats and parkas that had made them look twice as bulky, as if they were built like rugby players.
As she watched, they started to remove their coverings, pulled scarves from about their throats, took off hats to reveal their hair. Just as she had assumed, each of them looked to be in their teens, the one facing her being a freckled-faced youth with brilliant blue eyes. He was easily the skinniest of the boys, having worn the thickest coat which did well to conceal his true size. He seemed to notice her watching him and ducked his head, red around the cheeks. Was that from the cold or from being seen in a place such as this?
“One Gold Standard challenge and your water gents.” The waitress reappeared and Danni’s jaw dropped. She was holding what had to be the biggest dessert glass Danni had ever seen! Every inch was piled high with something sweet and though the pictures on the wall were good, they didn’t hold a candle to the reality! As one, as if showing this king of all desserts the utmost respect, the boys rose to their feet, armed with spoons like swords and faces set, prepared to do battle against this great foe.
“Ready… steady… go!” The waitress announced, pressing the button on a stopwatch she had pulled from her apron with a devilish gleam in her eye. What happened next, could only be described as carnage. The boys attacked the sweet feast like sharks descending on schools of fish, spoons flashing, teeth crunching, scarcely pausing to breathe!
Torn between finishing her own food as quickly as possible and watching this showdown to its finale, Danni sat there, her fork hanging suspended before her mouth.
“Quite the sight, eh?” The waitress’ voice came out of seemingly nowhere and Danni’s head shot up to see her smirking by her side, arms folded and looking immensely proud of herself.
“These boys show up at least once a week to try and tackle this, and I’ve never seen them do it successfully. Each time they come up with a new strategy, starving themselves, stuffing themselves before hand, they’ve tried it all and it still proves to be too much for them. I’d honestly pity them if their enthusiasm wasn’t so damn entertaining.” She explained in an undertone, grinning like a fox at Danni.
“How… how many times have they tried to eat all of that?” Even if you put it on the floor, that glass had to be bigger than most people were tall!
“More times than I can count. But every time, they try and get their faces on the wall.” The waitress pointed around to where a group of pictures had been pinned to the wall. In them, beaming faces stared back at her with ice cream covered faces and behind them, empty glasses. At the table, the boys were already hard at work. One had taken charge of the skewers, pulling off each piece with his teeth and washing it all down with water. Another was digging tunnels into the cream, two more were going for the cheesecake.
“Looks like they plan for a water aided attack this time.” The waitress commented, before she spotted Danni’s barely touched food.
“I should leave you to enjoy your lunch. See you in a bit Miss.” With that, she disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Danni alone to watch the confectionary carnage. True to the waitress’ word, every bite of the cheesecake was delicious, creamy as it spread over her tongue, offset by the sharp bite of praline and honeycomb hidden inside that threatened to stick her teeth together. Maybe, if she asked very nicely, she could get the recipe for this slice of heaven.
When her plate was cleaned, only the merest crumbs and smallest streaks of chocolate remaining, she looked back towards the boys and, much to her dismay, they were already starting to flag. To their credit, they had made it halfway but the combination of 14 different scoops of ice cream had proven to be their undoing. One of them was trying desperately hard to continue but even his willpower was starting to give. It was actually rather sad to see. They had begun to such gusto and now they looked on the verge of giving up.
In any other story, Danni would have marched over, put down her own ante and finished off more of the rest of the entire dessert. But this was not that kind of story. Instead, her attention was drawn towards the figure striding past the door.
“Hey! You there!” called a voice as the bell above the door tinkled. She came face to face with a man standing beside a car with a brightly shining ‘Village Taxi’ sign on top of it. The man himself had a round face, sparse brown hair hidden underneath a flat cap, and a rotund, friendly form clad in a button-down shirt under a knitted sweater vest that reminded Danni of something her grandfather might wear.
“Uhm… Do you mean me?” Danni asked, pointing to herself, pulling her backpack on, as the man made his way over to her, a wide smile that reached his warm brown eyes breaking out over his face.
“Are you uh…” He consulted a small notebook that he had fished out of his back pants pocket. “Danny?” he asked, looking between the book in his hand and Danni herself.
“Yes, I am. Who are you? Were… were you waiting for me?” Danni asked, blinking in surprise.
“Ah yes. Pleased to meet you uhm… I’m sorry for supposing, but you’re looking awfully feminine for having such a male name.”
“That’s… I think you may have made a mistake. I’m a woman, my name is Danni. Spelled D-A-N-N-I, it’s short for Diana but I insist everyone call me Danni. I hope that’s okay.”
The man let out a booming laugh that made everyone laugh. “Of course, it’s your name. You deserve to have it spelled and pronounced however you wish. You may call me Richard. I’m usually working over in the Broken Branch, but I always work the taxi service here in town. Of course, I’m the only one who works it. It’s just me and Black Beauty here.” He motioned to his car as he put away his notebook and extended his hand. Danni shook it, feeling herself smile. She couldn’t help but like this man. Usually, people didn’t react like that whenever she insisted.
‘“But you’re a girl! You can’t have a name like that!” Shouted the bald-headed seven-year-old who had just rubbed sand into her hair at the playground. Snot was drying under his nose, and he was glaring down at her like she had done him some great sin.
“I can and it is! It’s my name!”
“No!” The boy had screamed, his banshee wails making her head ring, kicking at the ground, scattering leaves and turning a different girl’s painstakingly made sandcastle to a trampled heap.
“Oh, grow up!” Danni had shot to her feet and, with the strength in her six-year-old body, shoved him over. He had been annoying her ever since she had come into the playground that day. First by demanding that she be the princess for the game that he and his friends were playing, then he had tried to steal her glasses when she ignored him, thinking that it would convince her. When she had tried to get away from him, he had seized her by the back of her denim pinafore dress and thrown her to the ground, ignoring how she screamed bloody murder. When he went for her glasses again, she’d thrown sand in his face, and he’d promptly burst into tears. All the while, Danni had been left wondering where his parents were.
Then he had seen the carefully stitched name on her dress pocket.
Perhaps because of the sand in his eyes or because he was just not good at reading, he had blinked down at her, his eyes moving over the word again and again until finally, the synapses in his brain connected.
“Liar! You lied!” He had screamed as she climbed to her feet, dusting off the grime and trying to pull sand from her hair with her fingers.
“I didn’t! Leave me alone!” She screamed, taking her glasses from her face and inspecting the lens, making sure he hadn’t damaged them.
“That’s not your name! You’re a liar!” He had howled, reaching for her hair again and she went for his shin, her black shoe connecting but the raging beast refused to go down.
That was how they had gotten to where they were.
He had proceeded to scream his objections about her name in her face until he’d finally gone running to his house, clearly thinking that his mother would back him up. Danni had chosen that moment to run home herself, disappearing just as his mother, a woman with a shock of brilliant red hair had come running out.
But Richard looked to be heading towards his fifties, if not there already, and he was more than open to it.
“Are you going to bring me up to the house?” Danni asked, grabbing the handle of her suitcase and starting to pull it towards the door, passing the defeated boys and the waitress counting out the bills with a beaming look of victory on her face.
Richard opened the boot for her, and though he tried to help her get it inside, she insisted with a raised hand, settling the suitcase inside with only a soft grunt of strain before taking her place in the passenger seat.
“Indeed I am. I don’t know what your friend told you, but we’ve got quite the drive ahead of us.”
“Tawney did mention that you would be picking me up, but I don’t understand what
“My wife made you a pot of stew as a welcome gift. She’s also got the keys to the place, so you don’t have to worry about cooking,” Richard explained, starting the car. A blast of warm air hit Danni in the face as the headlights came on and he reversed out of the parking lot. “You must be exhausted after all the travelling you’ve been doing.”
“Well, I came from London, so… I’ve been on that train since 3 this morning.” She couldn’t deny that she was exhausted, despite having barely done anything.
“London?! That’s pretty ritzy!” Richard turned away from the pavement and headed down a dark lane. There were no streetlights here, only the fleeting light of a sliver of the moon to guide them but Richard’s hands were as steadfast as the helmsman of a ship.
“I guess so… I’ve lived there for most of my life, though I went to University in Chichester,” Danni explained. It had been a great break from all the rush of London, even if only for three years.
“You’re a lucky girl. I’ve only been to London a few times, but it didn’t fit me. I’m very much a country mouse,” Richard said with a chuckle that seemed to come from the depths of his large stomach. The longer they sat here together, the more Danni found herself liking Richard. He was the picture of a lifelong countryside dweller, well fed and confident but soft spoken and friendly.
It was nearly impossible to see the road in the darkness, but Richard’s driving was sure and born of experience. All the while, he would talk about the village and the people.
Prompted as they passed a storefront covered by a pale awning. “That’s the grocer, owned by a man named Joey. You’ll meet him first. he’s been told to give you a delivery of food tomorrow morning. I knew his father, and I swear I couldn’t be prouder of what he’s done with his life. Better than that sister of his. There’s a lout with no sense for business… nor partners, now I mention it…” Danni’s head swivelled to watch the shop disappear. People, though they were more like dark shapes than recognisable figures were milling around it, heading up and down the street.
“Maggie is the sweetest creature alive.” Richard continued, as a red brick building looking like a church passed them by. “You might not see her too often, she’s the headteacher of the school…”
A woman paused to wave to them on the street. “Doris is a bit of an odd sort…”
“Martin has a farm not too far from your place; he has a weird rivalry with Lewis, but they’re both farmers, what else can you expect?” Two men appeared to be deep into an argument. Turning her head as fast as she could manage, Danni tried to remember all of the names that Richard was rattling off, but tiredness seemed to have crashed upon her all of a sudden. A combination of the long journey, that delectable cheesecake filling her stomach and the realisation of just how far she had come was crashing down on her. How she wished he would be quiet so she could sleep; but at the same time, his stream of chatter was oddly soothing. Richard didn’t seem like a gossipy chatterbox one would expect to come from a country village like this; he just seemed to be the kind who liked to talk and was happy to have someone new to talk to.
“Here we are. This is the place. Wendy said that she left the key under the mat for you, and the stew should be in the fridge.” Richard’s car mounted a small hill and, with a hand on the brake, he rounded a small corner and slid silently into place. The engine died, and Danni mourned the loss of the heat immediately. Even with her coat wrapped around her, she shivered as she stepped out into the already biting evening air. Richard had already gotten her things out of the boot and walked her up to the door. It was a pair of grand wood and glass double doors, easily three meters in width, and so tall that Richard could have stepped inside without fear of bumping his head. Danni’s foot hit the doormat, and she heard a crunch of something grinding against gravel and a jangle of metal under it. Pulling a key ring out from underneath, she inserted it into the door and turned it. The doors opened into a huge kitchen, smelling of cleaning products, and someone must have turned the heating on, because Danni felt a shiver of delight race along her skin at being surrounded by warm air again.
“Ahh… You’re going to have a good time here, miss.” Richard was taking a moment to indulge in the warmth as well, letting a serene smile play across his face.
“Thank you for everything. I mean it, you didn’t have to do all of this for me.” Danni’s stomach was rumbling at the thought of the stew Richard’s wife had waiting for her in the fridge. She just hoped she would be able to scarf down a few spoonfuls before passing out.
She was supposed to do a full sweep of the place and take inventory of everything as soon as she arrived, according to the instructions Tawney had given her. But Danni was willing to bet that Tawney hadn’t expected her to arrive just as the darkness was creeping in after an almost 16-hour train ride!
“Don’t concern yourself, miss. Your friend asked me to bring you here, but my wife insisted that we make you comfortable. It’s the least that we can do for newcomers.” Richard wheeled the luggage into the kitchen as Danni set her bag down on the table. She groped around for a light switch as Richard headed for the door, apparently eager to get back to his car. “I hope to see you around the village soon. Maybe you should come to church sometime or the Broken Branch.” Danni smiled at Richard, waving him goodbye. He disappeared into his car and drove off, as Danni watched the lights vanish down the road.
She closed the door behind her, and, standing there alone in this house, surrounded by the smell of disinfectant spray and burnt logs, she felt so very small. She didn’t have the energy to try and move around, investigate the house, or even approach the subject of doing inventory. The demands of her stomach were the only thing on her mind, and Danni knew that she wouldn’t be able to rest until they had been satiated. Finding the switch again, she flicked it on, flooding the room with light; but she was so tired, she was barely able to take in any of the fine furnishings and shiny new appliances.
Just as Richard had promised, in the fridge there was a Tupperware container filled with enough rich beef stew to feed a family, a second sitting next to it filled with rice and she found bowls and cutlery in the drawers. When she searched for something to drink, she discovered a jug of a sweet tasting juice tucked away in the door of the fridge. Richard’s wife had truly gone above and beyond for her, and even in her exhausted state, Danni made a mental note to thank her for it. It was a simple matter to scoop some of both into a bowl and warm it in the microwave, the smell of slow cooked beef filling her head. Bit by bit, she was starting to feel a little more human.
The stew was hearty, the chunks of meat thick enough to chew and they fell apart between her teeth. The rich flavour made her mouth tingle, seeming to soothe her every frazzled nerve. Though she wasn’t keen on the carrots hidden away inside, they were small enough to be ignored and the fried potatoes amongst them still had enough to chew on. Spread over the rice, soaking the grains, there was no stopping her after that first bite. Without realising it, she found herself scraping the smears from the sides of the bowl and it was only her body’s cries for sleep that kept her from going back for more. Instead, she put the Tupperware and the sizeable leftovers back into the fridge and, after turning off the light, she stumbled into the living room. Sagging under the weight of her fatigue, Danni barely had the wherewithal to toe off her shoes before she toppled over onto something that smelled of new leather.
She was asleep before her head hit the cushions.