The Pie Hole

Carmen Davis was in the middle of making lunch when her phone buzzed on the countertop three days and two hours later. She picked up the phone and looked at the number. It wasn’t one that she has seen before, so she immediately assumed that it was one of the six places that she applied to over the last few days.

“Hello,” she said into the phone, setting the knife down next to the cutting board. The smell of the fruit was in the air around her.

“Is this Carmen Davis?” a male’s voice asked. When he heard the reply, he continued, “This is Ned from The Pie Hole. I would like to know when you could come in for an interview.”

Ned was actually impressed with her resume because he wouldn’t have to do much training with her. The other resumes had come from high school girls, looking for their first job. He wouldn’t have minded if the girl could stay off her phone like the one he had to fire two months ago. Another reason why he had chosen to call Carmen was because he wanted to see her again.

The new girl had been on his head more than it probably should. It could have been just because that she was someone he had never met before, and she just seemed to stick out among the group of people he had seen his whole life. Though it didn't really seem like that. He could tell that something was with her, and he wanted to learn more about her.

“I’m free this afternoon, so I can come in at any time,” Carmen said into the phone.

She was actually happy that Ned had called her. She didn’t really want to work at the little café across the street of the school. She had remembered when she had worked in one of those in a beach town in California. During lunch, she would get a headache from the screaming teenagers about some singer or actor. It would get a little too annoying for her to handle.

“How about you come in around one?” Ned asked, making it an hour away. It would be after the rush hour, and there would be time for him to ask her questions.

“That sounds good,” Carmen answered, looking at the clock. She hung up before eating her food and going into her room to get dressed.

***

Olive Snook was delivering three pieces of pie to the small family. The sound of the door opening called her attention. She turned to see a blonde girl who was average height. The girl’s eyes was almost an emerald green. Olive walked over to the girl who was standing in the middle of the floor with nervous look in her eyes.

“How may I help you?” Olive asked with a genuine smile.

“I’m here for an interview with Ned,” Carmen said, looking at the only waitress working at that moment.

“I think he may be in the kitchen. I’ll go and get him,” Olive said, before turning on her heels.

Carmen couldn’t help but wonder how she would look in the green dress and white apron if she worked here. It looked cute on Olive, but Olive was a cute little blonde girl with shoulder length hair. She seemed to have that bright personality where it took a lot for her to be sad.

Carmen wasn’t exactly like that. She dwelled on the smallest things that weren’t necessarily important. She thought about her past and her family who she could never see again. They had to think that Carmen was dead, or they would wonder what happened. Or rather how it was possible for her to be alive. Of course, she also worried that the person who killed her was still in Miami.

“Hey,” Ned said, coming around the corner. He had a bright smile, and his brown eyes shined in the florescent light. He looked around, noticing it was still a little busier than he would have liked. “How about we do the interview in the kitchen?”

“Sure,” Carmen answered, noticing the blonde waitress moving behind her. She followed him into the other room. There was fruit and pastries on the counter top, and the smell of pies filled the air. It reminded her of her grandmother who died when Carmen was fifteen. She had wished that she had gotten to learn about how to make them back then.

Ned asked most of the normal questions that Carmen expected. It all about what she did in the other restaurants that she worked in. It was clear that Ned was enjoying what she was saying. He hated having to train someone completely from scratch. Most of it would just be what was on the menu for Carmen's training.

“Well, one more question. Do you have any tattoos that would be seen with short sleeves?” Ned asked.

Most of the people that went into The Pie Hole didn’t have tattoos and that there weren’t that many people around that did have tattoos. They usually didn’t freak out about it when they saw one, but you could tell they didn’t like it even if they didn't say anything about it.

Carmen looked down at her arm for a second and nodded. “Yeah, I have Anubis,” she answered, raising her sleeve.

Ned looked at the man with a jackal head. He had never understood what the Egyptian gods were. He didn’t really know if there was someone up there, but he hoped there was. He hoped that he had a good reason why he had his gift. It would make him feel better if there was some answer to why he was gifted with what he had.

“Is this going to be a problem?” she asked after a moment of silence.

“Of course not, I just wanted to let you know that the customers may not tip as well,” he said. “I think I lied. I have one more question.”

Carmen looked at the pie maker, wondering what this last question would be. Her dog popped in the back of her head with the reminder that he would have to go to outside at some point. There was a moment of silence between them that seemed to last a little longer than it really did.

“When can you start?” Ned asked, leaning on the counter top. His brown hair fell a little on his forehead which caused him to look a little younger than when it was pushed back. He had a bright, excited smile form on his lips.