Yule Log

The scent of roast turkey and mashed potatoes rushed into her nostrils as Juliette elbowed her way through the kitchen doors. Festive music and merry laughter still rang in her ears, but she was not in the mood, especially when there were four waiters lining up at the counter for the lasagne.

It was certainly a bustling day at Jaeger's Diner.

"Julie, hurry up," Daniel, the earliest waiter in line, urged. His fingers were tapping away mindlessly on the serving panel.

"What do you think I'm doing?" Juliette yelped. As she frantically glanced over the working bench, she silently thanked her assistants for unloading the pasta from the oven. Now, she only needed to season them, which shouldn't take long – provided that there weren't any more distractions.

Unfortunately, they just kept coming.

"Complaints are flowing in again," Edna, one of the other waiters, joined the line and called.

Juliette groaned internally before responding, "What did they say?"

"The soup's too cold, the steak's too raw... Oh, and they need the yule log as soon as possible."

"Coming right up!" Juliette called back, "Please try to entertain them as much as you can. I don't have the time to go out there and deal with them again."

"Will do."

"Thanks, Edna!"

Once she was gone, Juliette quickly finished off her seasoning by lining the lasagne with basil leaves.

"Julie, I'm getting murder stares from that table..."

"Yeah, yeah, Dan," Juliette rolled her eyes and handed the waiters their dishes. "Now shoo!"

Phew! Now, we can deal with the yule log.

Just when she could let out a sigh of relief, Juliette noticed the memo. Two turkeys had been added to the checklist in scrawled handwriting.

"Don't worry, Julie." Rhea, her assistant came to her rescue. "Norman and I are working on the turkeys already."

"Can you two handle them?"

"They're our specialty," Norman chipped in, "It's your last day here, remember? We'll do anything to make this day easier for our head chef."

Juliette could feel her heart melted a little, but she cleared her throat, "Ah, I guess you two weren't just trouble after all."

"We try our best not to disappoint." Rhea beamed.

Juliette cracked a small laugh and retrieved a yule log cake from the refrigerator. The chocolate icing on the roll-up cake was still smooth. It would take forever to transform it into a life-like tree trunk. If not for the help of Rhea and Norman, the turkeys would never be delivered on time.

"Do you need a carving template, Julie?" Norman turned his head and asked.

"No, I'm fine."

Juliette was far beyond fine. Nobody had spent as much time in front of yule logs as she had. When her mother, who was then working as a cleaning lady, brought her to the restaurant, Juliette was still a child. The first place she was introduced to was the table across the fireplace. That was where she met Walter Jaeger.

Due to their peculiarly common interest in observing the natural patterns of tree barks, they quickly became friends.

The inseparable pair was constantly around the burning logs, especially during the holidays when the restaurant was the busiest, but not even strangers minded them. Instead of driving them away, customers would give them candy canes. Peppermint was never Walter's favourite flavour for a candy, but he would always chase after Juliette to snatch her sweets.