The Reaper's Mission- 2013

Chapter Four- Dimples, Smoothies and Shakes

I laughed a little as she flushed ever-so-slightly at her momentary rambling.

"That's interesting. What about them do you like? I mean, people..." I trailed off, seeing that we had arrived at our destination.

"Hold on to that thought," Karolyn told me, opening the door and motioning inside. "I want to hear what you were gonna say."

I raised an eyebrow but said nothing as I stepped in the door with the rest of the group.

The inside of Dimple's was one of the most friendly places I'd ever visited, and I had to stop for a moment and get used to the feeling of being welcomed. On one wall, custard machines were churning all varieties of flavors, and in the middle of them was an elderly man mixing up a smoothie for the customers in front of our group. Scattered about the place were small, round tables with way more chairs around them than seemed possible, though the place itself wasn't at all large in size. The back wall was what caught my attention the most though; picture after picture of smiling faces were taped, tacked, and glued, to the point of overlapping one another, to the back wall, and right in the center of all the photos was a grinning picture of Karolyn.

"What's that all about?" I asked, motioning to the wall. Karolyn laughed and ran her fingers across it.

"Every customer since this place opened like a hundred years ago has a picture on that wall," she explained, her hand stopping on a picture of a man and his daughter. "Dimples is named for its smiles. That's what the owner always told me when I asked as a kid."

I found myself smiling unconsciously at some of the pictures. There wasn't anything negative about that wall. Just free, pure happiness. A rare find in my world.

"Who's that?" I asked, motioning to the picture of the man and his daughter that Karolyn seemed to be especially drawn to.

"No one, really," she said honestly, looking a bit sad. "I've just always liked this one because it reminds me of my dad. He died when I was six, so I never got many pictures with him." She shrugged and turned back to face me. "Any ideas of what you're gonna get here? I'd recommend the smoothies, but if you like more ice cream type things, their custards are amazing too."

I shook my head, still reeling from her shift in both mood and topic. It was as if she was changing the topic for me, to not make me feel down, and I wondered if anyone could really be that selfless. History told me no, but Karolyn seemed different.

"I thought the peanut butter shake looked good, so I may get that," I improvised. "What's your favorite?"

"Yo!" someone shouted to the left of us. It was Tracy. "Order up, Kay and new kid! I'm buyin!"

I was about to object, but Karolyn just shook her head.

"Don't," she advised. "Her parents are stinkin' rich, and she'll like you better if you just accept."

I sighed but figured I had better listen. Reapers had as much money in their worlds as they wanted, but having unlimited cash sticks out as a high schooler, so I kept my complaint to myself.

"I'll take a peanut butter shake, thanks," I said, then motioned to Karolyn.

"I'll have the usual!" she told the man behind the counter cheerily. "Thanks, Doug!"

The man smiled broadly, revealing a few missing teeth and more than a few wrinkles.

"Anything for you, Karolyn," he replied with a certain fondness to his voice when he spoke to Karolyn. The group sat down around one of the too-small tables, and Karolyn grabbed an extra chair for me, setting it next to her own.