Live & Learn (ONC 2020)

A long way from home

With a heavy stone at the bottom of his stomach, or so it felt to him, Leo sauntered on. At the very small bright side of things, he wasn't captured or tortured yet. And for the first time since ages he was back in his beloved, currently also feared, home country. Even better, he was in France with some nice company. If he forgot about the whole once-captured-I-am-a-dead-man thingy, things weren't so bad. Of course that one small thing was quite hard to forget, so the granite in his stomach stayed where it was.

Just called 'nice company' was walking in front of him, looking for a cafe or bar still open so they could escape from the cold weather. Leo increased his pace to walk beside Luna.

"Did you get out of your pit of despondency yet?" she asked after giving him a glance.

"Let's just say I am almost at the top, but the last yard is a particular slippery part."

They lapse into silence once more. Leo looked at the lights from all the food and beverage outlets that were still open in the distance. There were still quite a few.

When Leo noticed that his thoughts drifted back to guilt, torture, and death, he started looking at the names of the restaurants and bars. There was one named 'Thores Pub', with the name painted in white chic characters above the door. Leo didn't like the look of it. Next to it was another one called 'De Boucherie', but the windows were dark.

Leo squinted his eyes in an effort to see what the next one was called. With difficulty he could make out the characters displaying a curious name.

Le Chat qui Joue.

Someone had drawn a cat on the chalkboard. Beautiful vicious animals that were, though Leo couldn't say the same about the drawing.

The drawer of the cat itself most likely worked at the restaurant. Whether the drawer of the glasses and mustache adorning the animal was a worker or a passenger, Leo couldn't say. He put his money on the latter. Ironically, he found that the mustache was drawn with more skill than the cat itself.

"Let's go inside."

Luna looked at him and frowned, puzzled by his sudden breaking of the silence.

"Inside where?"

"Le chat qui Joue," Leo told her. This time he also remembered to point at the place in question.

"Oh." Luna followed the direction in which his finger pointed. She shivered. Quickly making her decision, she nodded.

When they opened the door they were greeted by a mixture of smells and warmth that let Leo's stomach forget all about the block of granite it held. After getting rid of most of the snow on their clothes, he eagerly steered Luna to one of the tables against the wall and near the fireplace in which a fire was burning. The meals he ordered were soon delivered to their table.

While they both duck into their meals they focused solely on the food. Neither of them had eaten anything since noon, and by the looks of it twelve hours had passed already. Luna was the first to be done, finishing her meal in record time. She leaned backwards.

"So, what now?"

An excellent question, Leo thought as he shoved the last of his meal into his mouth, both disappointed and awed by the fact that he had come in second with finishing his meal. In the back of his mind he wondered where Luna had been taught in the art of mouth stuffing. He would like to hear the answer to that question. And of course he'd also like have an answer to the question Luna had voiced out loud.

After Leo swallowed the far too large bite with difficulty, he opened his mouth. Not to stuff it with more food this time, as it was all gone already.