50 / 195
As the waiter turned to walk out, his eyes dropped and he saw one sneakered
foot beside a bionic leg, which was lightly kicking a basketball side to side
beneath the table. He sucked in his breath slowly, before walking back to the
kitchen. “So brave”, he muttered to himself.
The girl heard him, saw the look up and down, the intake of breath, but took
no offence. She was used to this by now.
In the kitchen, Jason sighed, exhausted from a long day of work. He went to
wash his hands, which were covered with the day’s grime. He turned on the
silver tap, but nothing came out. Surprised, he turned the tap off and on again.
Still, nothing. Jason's hands were filthy! He had used water only a few minutes
ago, where could it have gone?
His waiter, Jeffrey, returned and went to fill up a large glass bottle. He turned on
the tap and was surprised to see nothing.
"Where's the water gone?" asked the confused waiter.
"I don't know, this tap's not working either."
"Well what are we going to do? The table needs water to drink."
"Simple. Apologise, and say the water's run out."
"But they need -"
"Jeffrey, it's okay. I'm sure they'll understand."
"Okay, boss. I'll tell 'em."
"Look, I'll come with you." said Jason, placing down his hat.
Jeffrey walked out to the table nervously, closely following by Jason. It was his
first day at his new job, and he didn't want to let anyone down.
When he reached the table, he stuttered, nervous about how the customers
might react.
"I'm sorry, but unfortunately we have run out of water. The taps aren't
working," Jason said. "Would you like a smoothie, or maybe a coffee instead?"
The girl looked as if she was thinking hard.
“No thank you, it’s fine.”
“It’s a real mystery, no idea what’s going on with it,” Jason interjected, worried
he’d have an unhappy customer on his hands.
The girl snapped out of her reverie.
“There’s an old dreamtime legend about water, have you heard of it before?”
"Oh, I don't know, I don't really believe in that sort of stuff," mumbled Jason.
"Just listen in, it's quite a cool story," the girl said.
“Go on then,” he said reluctantly, sitting down on a spare chair at the table.
Jeffrey stared at him curiously, but Jason nodded at him to stay.