Bringing Home the Bacon (OPEN)

Sam was out in the city once again with his pile of questionnaires. He had quickly discovered that the study of sociology was as much leg work as analysis of data, mainly because if you did not do any leg work you would not get any data to analyze. And he had also quickly learned that people really did not like filling in questionnaires about their life styles. That and a lot of people took one look at him and his Asian features and found that they really needed to be somewhere else fast. Good thing they did not know that he was also a mutant.

Now he was in some random part of town and it was lunch time; fact that his stomach had certainly not failed to remember. Luckily for him there was a small restaurant up ahead, it looked inviting enough although there were only a few customers. He approached and read through the menu, hamburgers, pastas, salads all the usual stuff was there and the prices were reasonable. Urged on by one last grumble from his stomach he pushed the door and let himself in.

As he entered one of the waitresses signaled that he should pick any table, so he went across to a reasonably isolated table in one of the corners. As he put down his paperwork he was glad that he was eating alone, there would not have been room for the papers and someone else. The thought made him smile; this was probably what they called being married to your work. He picked up the menu on the table to confirm his choice while letting the music from his ipod keep him company.

Hamburger, cheeseburger, bacon burger… the Americans sure liked their burgers. Although Sam had to admit that the British were quite willingly following in their footsteps and the next time he went home for a visit he firmly expected all of the inhabitants of London to have gained at least 10 pounds.
This assumption was based on the fact that he expected it to be years before he would next be invited home for a visit. As he was pretty sure that his step dad would want to forget about him as fast as possible. He sighed; there was no use dwelling on things you couldn’t change; what you could dwell on however was which of the long list of hamburgers to have for lunch.

As he had finally narrowed down his decision to a normal burger or a cheeseburger a figure stepped into his light. Looking up he saw that it was the waitress come to take his order, she was saying something to him but with Big Bang’s fantastic baby blaring in his ears he could not hear what it was. He hurriedly put down the menu and removed the ear piece nearest her so that he might hear.

“Sorry didn’t catch any of that.”

He gave her a shamefaced smile and finished putting away his ipod. He laid it on the table next to the pile of papers to be sure not to forget it. Then he picked up the menu again and opened it at the burger page. Pointing at the vast list he decided to ask her for her professional opinion.

“You have so many of these, I can’t choose. Which would you recommend?”

There that took care of the choice of his meal and he hoped that by asking her opinion the waitress would forgive him somewhat for his rudeness earlier.

As the waitress passed the weight of the burger decision back to him Sam could help but feel a little disappointed. Normally the restaurant staff had some kind of opinion regarding what was on the menu, even if it was only feedback gleaned from the customers. He looked up at his waitress once again and wondered if she was a new hire here because that would explain the lack of opinion. Whatever else she was she seemed nice and friendly enough so he decided not to keep her to long and to just pick something.

“Ok how about a cheeseburger and a coke then.”

He reckoned that you couldn’t go far wrong with that kind of choice because this place would have to be really bad to screw up a cheeseburger. Although now that he looked around there were very few other customers here which possibly did not bode well for the food quality. He turned his attention back to his pile of papers and started to sort through them. One pile for the already completed surveys and one for the blanks; as he finalized the two it was plain to see that the completed pile was looking a little worse for wear.

However as he worked he could not shake the feeling that someone was watching him. Turning slightly in his seat he glanced over in the direction the oppressive feeling had been coming from and stood in the entrance to the kitchen was one of the waiters. When the man noticed that he had been caught staring, instead of turning away and doing something else he shot Sam a grim smile. A chill went up the illusion mutant’s spine and he decided to return to his papers but the knowledge of the ill intentioned stare made him feel seriously uncomfortable.

Sam was saved from his uncomfortable predicament by the return of his waitress. She brought him his drink and provided a welcome distraction. As he was trying hard to ignore the ever present stare, he forced himself to study the girl as she stood by his table. She was not all that tall and slightly older than he was. She had dark skin and he could not help but wonder if she had some Latino or American Indian roots. And the thing he liked most about her so far was the open honest expression.

When he finally looked away from her he was relieved to notice that she had not been paying that much attention to him, she was busy glancing at his papers. He was just about to try his luck and broach the subject of the survey when she spoke.

"Do you need another one of those filled?"

His eyebrows rose in surprise. No one and he really meant no one Volunteered to fill in a survey. At least no one he had met so far. He was so taken aback by her question that it took him some time to find his voice again.

“Sure. I mean… you don’t mind? People usually hate these.”

He knew he was stuttering and if he did not shut up right now she might change her mind. So he forced himself to be quiet and picked up an empty survey sheet. He held it out for her in a hesitant manner, the last thing he wanted to do now was make her feel pressured. Gods knew he had only gotten eight or nine of these filled today, it literally was every single one counts.

“If you need a pen I have one.”

As he said it he realized how silly that statement was. After all she was a waitress, she had just taken his order with a pen.

As she asked if she could sit down he quickly nodded his head and indicated the chair opposite him. Once she was settled he fished out his pen and handed it to her. Not that it would have mattered if she had filled it out in bright purple. He would probably be the only one to read them anyway and with that thought he decided that she was at least entitled to know what the survey was for.

“I’m sorry if I’m bad at this whole survey thing. It’s my first time… And bright purple would have been fine, those are for my own survey,” He posed for a second and then decided to add a bit more detail. “I’m a sociology student.”

There he had at least explained the context to her and it had helped him relax a bit; although he could not help but glance over his shoulder every now and then to check if the other waiter was still staring or not. The guy was seriously giving him the creeps.

“Umm, Have I done something to bother your colleague? He’s been staring a hole in my back for a while now.”

He didn’t know why he asked the question and was pretty sure he would not like the answer. It would probably be something along the lines of “he hates Asian people” or even just “can’t stand people that harass you with surveys”. Well whatever it was the guy clearly had it in for him, he was starting to get worried that the guy would actually come over here soon.

Sam watched as his waitress glanced past him and at the man in the doorway. She frowned a little and seemed equally perplexed by his attitude. He gave her a minute to study the situation and come up with a possible reason for the hostility. But he did deduce one thing from her momentary silence… whatever this was it was not usual.

"Sorry, I don't know. I'm still new and learning everyone's quirks.”

Well that was ok, although she had been kind when she had defined the staring as a “quirk”. He guessed there were intolerant people everywhere but it still surprised him to find someone like that in the midst of New York City. This was not some small backwater town where few foreigners came to settle, it was a huge multinational city that welcomed people from all over. He was about to express this surprise to his companion when she continued somewhat hesitantly.

“However, I honestly don't think he works here. If you want I can go ask the chef; he knows every one of the staff."

Her words sent a chill down his spine. What was this man doing here acting like a waiter if he did not work here… Whatever it was it did not bode well. He knew that whoever ran this place should probably be warned of this but he did not feel that sending a girl past this guy was a good idea. They had both glanced in his direction and he had to know that they were talking about him. With an effort he made sure that he looked straight at the waitress and tried to keep her attention on him.

“Well if he doesn’t belong here then he probably means trouble… So unless there is another way to the kitchen than through that door he is leaning against, I suggest you wait here.”

He glanced down at the survey she had half filled in, trying to return her attention to it rather than the man.

“I reckon that he has spotted our not so discreet glances by now and just strolling past him would not go well.”

Sam kind of felt trapped by the whole situation and what was sure was that he had most definitely lost his appetite. As he saw it they could wait and see how the situation evolved, try and contact the owner or he could leave and hope that the other guy left as well. But that last option was dangerous because if he was followed he had no way of defending himself if things went south and if the other guy stayed here then he might go after the girl.

Sam was glad that she followed his hints and kept her attention glued to the survey that she was now almost pretending to finish. A small part of him felt a bit disappointed that the only person who had actually volunteered to fill in his survey had been so rudely interrupted, but he did not have the time to dwell on that feeling.

"It would look bad if I didn't go get your meal, I'd have to go past him to get it one way or another."

Sam knew that what she said was right but it annoyed him anyway. Why should she have to keep up appearances and do things properly when that guy was breaking all the rules by camping out in a hostile fashion? He didn’t like the idea of letting her go past him but he could not see a way around it for the moment… well that was not entirely true. There was one way around this, all he had to do was confront the guy and then he would be sure that he would endanger no one but himself.

However Sam was not the hero type and finding a plan B was prominent in his mind. The scanned the room looking for some way to distract the guy. Then an idea came up, it was not a classy one or anything like that would it would help to see who this guy was after.

“Ok, how about this: you go to the kitchen and get what I ordered and I’ll get up and head to the restroom. We can see who he follows, if he follows. Who knows maybe he just likes staring?”

The door to the rest room was only a few meters away from the one to the kitchen, on the same wall, which meant that even if the guy made a move on the girl Sam would be able to intervene.