Morris Graves's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

In the morning, Morris stood in his dining room and studied the empty chairs. The purple spaghetti sat on the counter, eyes still bright. A fine dish deserved a fine crowd. He wiped his hands on his apron and nodded. The problem was simple. Nobody knew he was open. He would tell them. He dug through a closet and found a big cloth banner, folded and dusty. Bold letters read NOW OPEN! COME AND EAT. Morris grinned and hauled it outside. He tied one end to the awning post and the other to a bent lamp pole. The banner sagged, then caught the wind and snapped straight. Morris stepped back and admired his crumbling storefront with its cracked windows and faded sign. Now it looked like a real restaurant. Almost. He needed one more thing. A special. Something to make people stop walking. He found a small blackboard by the door and chalked DAILY SPECIAL: Mystery Soup in his neatest hand. He did not have any soup. He would make some if a customer asked. Mystery was the whole point. He set the board on the sidewalk and waited by the window. People came. That was the strange, wonderful part. A woman with a market basket paused at the banner and smiled. A man in a work coat read the blackboard and pushed the door open. Then a small group followed, curious, laughing about the mystery. Morris nearly clapped. He hurried behind the counter and lifted the purple spaghetti with both hands like a prize. "Today's special dish," he said. "Fresh this morning." The woman opened her mouth to order. Then she went still. Her nose wrinkled. The man behind her sniffed once, twice, and stepped back into the doorway. Someone at the rear whispered a word Morris could not catch. The woman set her basket on a chair, said, "Sir, you smell like—" and did not finish. They ran. All of them. The door banged shut so hard the blackboard fell over outside. Morris stood alone with the bowl of eyes staring up at him. He set it down carefully. The banner worked. The sign worked. People had come. He counted six, maybe seven, more than any day before. He walked to the door and picked up the fallen blackboard. Something about the smell, the woman had started to say. The same thing the last one had tried to tell him. Morris frowned, which was rare for him, and held the frown for a full second. Then he brightened. If people kept mentioning a smell, the smell must be important. Tomorrow he would find it. Tomorrow he would fix it. He carried the blackboard back inside and began to plan.