mystery girl

This was the fifth time he’d seen her in the restaurant and he felt embarrassed for keeping track of such a stupid thing. He mentally marked every sighting of her, hoping each time she came around that he would get to wait her table, but by a stroke of the unlucky he’d always lose it either to his cousin Meche or to his mother.

Meche lucked out again today, and Lewis stood off to the far left corner of the busy eating area silently observing the way the two interacted. Meche, natural conversationalist and social butterfly, carried on lively chitchat with the enthusiastic, petite, blonde-haired girl that sat at Table 13 accompanied by her dog. Every so often Meche would bend down to smother the dog with kisses and scratches behind the ears. Lewis felt twinges of jealousy pricking at his chest as he watched. His entire body begged him to step forward and melt into the conversation, talk to that little scarf-loving bookworm, maybe shove Meche out of the picture entirely so he could talk to the girl.

“Sir, can I get another glass of milk?” The strained, raspy voice of a customer broke through Lewis’s thoughts, and he turned his head sharply to their attention. The customer was a college-age young man with a fair complexion that was momentarily stained by flushed cheeks and tears that poured from his reddened eyes.

Lewis chuckled. “I warned you about the Bhut Jolokia. Hottest chili pepper in the world. The cook only put one small slice of pepper in there, but I did tell you it’s enough to make a grown man cry.”

The college boy choked on his own tears and fanned himself with a napkin. “I just… I need something. Another glass of milk or something. An ambulance, maybe.”

“Milk, si. Ambulance, no. Our insurance doesn’t cover that,” Lewis playfully replied. “I’ll be back in a sec with a few glasses of milk, no problem.”

He turned to head back to the kitchen and met Meche on his way through the two swinging doors. He held one of them open for her as she breezed through with two trays full of empty, dirtied dishes. Her disheveled brown hair fell in clumps out of her loosely-hanging bun and a few stray pieces stuck to her sweaty forehead. Despite her consistently unkempt look, she still managed to get quite a few folks hitting on her during restaurant hours, resulting in Lewis having to step in between a gawking onlooker and Meche, whom he considered to be like a little sister. She slipped under Lewis’s arm and turned her head to look up at him on her way through the door.

“You were staring again,” she huffed.

Lewis followed her into the kitchen and stayed on her heel. “No I wasn’t.”

Meche sighed. “Luís. I am no fool. I see you looking at her every time she comes in. You probably make her uncomfortable, you know. I bet she’s caught you idly standing in the corner, looking wistfully her way, when you should be working.”

Lewis held out his hand to grab one of the trays from Meche and trailed behind her to the sink to drop them off. “I want to talk to her, but you always manage to nab her table.”

“Then go talk to her, Lewis!” she cried. The two danced through the kitchen, a complicated salsa involving a series of carefully-timed steps that, when executed properly, allowed them to drop off dirty dishes and pick up ready orders in one pirouette, all the while weaving through the mix of other family members without missing a step.

“I just told you why I can’t do that,” Lewis snapped. He whisked a couple glasses off a shelf and tossed them onto a tray, then filled them both with milk all in one smooth motion. “Maybe you could give the table over to me. That would make it easier.”

Meche let out a dry laugh as she hoisted a new tray with ready orders onto her shoulder. “I don’t think so, I want her tip!”

Lewis stuck out his lip, but silently trailed her out the kitchen doors and back into the dining room. Meche winked at her cousin with a giggle before whirling back to Table 13 with the girl’s order. Lewis found his way back to the crying college kid and gently placed the two glasses of milk on the table in front of his unfinished meal, removing the two other empty milk glasses shoved off to the side. The kid frantically reached for a full glass and downed the thing in a few gulps. Milk trailed down his face from the corners of his mouth. He looked like an infant after a bottle, and Lewis stifled a laugh.

“If there is anything else I can get for you, señor, please let me know,” he offered.

The college boy wheezed and wiped his dripping mouth with the back of his hand. “Check, please.”

While Lewis scurried over to the front counter to ring up the kid’s order, he found himself glancing over to observe Meche and the girl as they continued their conversation from earlier. The girl’s dog sat on its hind legs, wiggling its rear end and short, bushy tail, hoping for a few handouts from her plate. The girl picked a few choice pieces of chicken off the plate and offered them to her dog without hesitation. For a moment, Lewis wondered if they even allowed animals into the restaurant, but quickly figured that if Mama hadn’t kicked it out already, it was either an excusable allowance or a non-issue altogether.

Meche caught Lewis’s eye sometime during the conversation, and her cheek pricked up in a smile. He watched as she spoke again to the girl and spied her mouth making the shape of the word “Lewis” somewhere in the sentence. He felt his face melting into a blushing, flustered mess and quickly scrambled back to the college kid’s table to hand him the check and avoid Meche’s playful gaze that told him she was up to something.

“Lewis.” Meche’s voice carried clear across the dining room. “Ven aquí.”

He couldn’t ignore her. He slowly turned around to face her and played dumb.

“Me?” he mouthed, pointing to himself. “I’m busy.”

Meche firmly shook her head. She waved him over. “¡Aquí!”

Lewis sighed, a partial attempt to calm his jittery nerves, and adjusted his necktie before striding across the room to meet his cousin at Table 13. He couldn’t look down at the smiling, glittery-eyed girl seated at the table and kept his eyes on Meche, eyebrows raised.

“Yes?” he squeaked. Dios mío, he sounded like a goddamn teenager. His cheeks ignited all over again and he tried clearing his throat to redeem himself. “You needed something?”

“This is the dork I was just telling you about,” Meche said to the girl, ignoring Lewis’s empty question while jabbing him with her elbow. “My cousin, Lewis. He believes in all that ghostly stuff, too.” She looked up at Lewis and grabbed his arm to pull him closer. “Lewis, this is Vivi. She’s apparently some kind of paranormal investigator.”

Vivi. That’s who she was! Vivi was a childhood friend of Lewis’s who had parted ways with him just before high school, since she had moved and her parents put her in another school. As children, the two had their fair share of haunted adventures along with her dog Mystery and a perpetually-fearful ginger-headed kid Lewis couldn’t recall the name of. Warm memories began to flood his mind upon hearing her name and recognizing the spark in her lively blue eyes.

The grin that spread over her face told Lewis that she remembered, too.

“Lewis,” she affectionately sighed. “I remember you. It’s been a while, huh?”

Lewis felt like the stupid, shy kid who fell in puppy love over his first look at her in second grade. “Sure has. You know, if I recall correctly, the last time I saw you, your hair was colored bright pink just like Sakura Haruno.”

Vivi scoffed and waved a hand at Lewis, then ran her fingers through her bright blonde hair. “Pff, yeah, that was back in middle school, also known as one of the most embarrassing phases of my life.”

Lewis grinned. “I don’t think anyone makes it out of middle school without going through a horrifically embarrassing phase or two. How have you been these days?”

Vivi proudly beamed. “I just started a paranormal investigator’s group at school as part of my senior project. We’re currently looking into local haunted hotspots and compiling sound proof of paranormal activity based on physical, tested evidence. Once we’ve graduated, we hope to take our group to the next level by actually helping people affected by hauntings or unexplainable, paranormal events.”

“Sounds just like you,” Lewis chuckled. “I wish you all the best with it.”

“Thank you,” Vivi sweetly replied, dipping her head. “It’s a little slow-coming, but I think we’ve got potential. It might take a while to make an established name for ourselves, but I really believe we’ve got the stuff to become a trusted name in paranormal investigation around here.”

“I don’t doubt it one bit,” Lewis emphatically added. He noticed that Meche had silently slipped away to resume her duties, leaving him alone with Vivi and Mystery. He held back a satisfied grin. Well played, Meche.

“Hey, you should join the group!” Vivi chirped. “We could really use more members, and it’d be great to reconnect with you that way.”

“I’d love to!” The words burst from Lewis’s lips before he had a chance to think them over. He briefly rethought his impulsive response, but his mouth got in the way again before he could reason with himself. “Give me a time and place, and I’ll be there.”

Vivi clasped her hands together in excitement. Mystery’s ears perked forward. “Oh, wonderful! We typically meet after school every Thursday night at 4pm unless something comes up, but this week we’ll actually be heading to one of the haunted sites we’ve been researching for a few weeks. If you want, you could just meet us there instead of at my school.” As she spoke, she fished in her purse for a notepad and pen. “Here, I’ll give you the address. It’s a little ways away, about 25 miles or so. Just giving you a heads-up so you can plan ahead for time.”

“I’ll be there,” he repeated, taking the small piece of paper from Vivi.

Mystery jumped up and danced around Lewis before hopping up on his hind legs to place his front paws on Lewis’s chest. His tongue lolled out of his mouth and he panted in excitement, then reached up to grace Lewis with a sloppy kiss.

“I think he’s a bit excited that you’re coming along,” Vivi giggled. “We both missed you. Like, a lot.”

Lewis cupped Mystery’s furry face with his hands and scratched him behind the ears. “I missed you too, buddy!” He looked up at Vivi’s rosy, grinning face. “And I missed you even more, Vivi. Like, a lot.”

He caught her start to blush as she shrugged her face down into the folds of her bright blue scarf. Another muffled giggle escaped her lips.

“I’ve seen you in here before,” Lewis continued. “Actually, you’ve been in here quite a few times. I never knew you liked Mexican food so much.”

Vivi looked up at the ceiling. A bashful smile played at the edges of her mouth and was just barely visible above her scarf. “I’m… kind of a sucker for spicy stuff. I can’t put my finger on what it is that keeps me coming back here.” Her eyes darted back to meet Lewis’s gaze dead-on. Her eyes squinted as her smile grew larger.

“Well, if that’s the case, you’re definitely in the right restaurant. Spicy is our specialty.” Lewis leaned forward to place both palms on the table, never letting his eyes wander away from hers. “Hey listen, I’m not sure if you were aware of this, but we’re running a special right now on the Picante Pollo y Salsa Verde. The whole meal is free if you bring your dog with you.”

Vivi’s mouth dropped open with a laugh. “Lewis! Oh my god, stop. You totally just made that up.”

Lewis rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine… there’s no special, but the meal’s on me.” Vivi sat forward and opened her mouth again to protest, but Lewis held up a hand and shook his head before she could speak. “No, no, I’m serious. The meal is free. It’s the least I could do for an old friend.”

“Well, I sincerely appreciate that, Lewis. Thank you. You don’t have to do that.”

He winked and pressed a finger to his lips. “Shhh. Just accept the gift. If you want to throw in a dessert too, just let me know and I’ll go whip something up.”

Vivi certainly couldn’t say “no” to more food, and especially not to free food with dessert prepared by Lewis.

——

“You cheated me of my table and my tip the other day, and you expect me to cover for your sorry ass so you can go on a haunted date tonight?” Meche snapped. “Nuh-uh, I don’t think so, Lewis!”

“Meche, please!” Lewis pleaded. “I haven’t seen this girl in years and this is my only chance to reconnect with her. Not to mention, I promised I’d be there tonight. I can’t break a promise.”

Meche rolled her eyes but didn’t respond. The two worked to stuff empanadas without speaking a word for a minute or so before Lewis cut through the thick, awkward silence.

“It’s not a date.”

“It is so a date.”

“No, it’s not. She’s bringing her investigation team.”

Meche went quiet again, and Lewis blew out a sigh.

“Look, you were the one who got us to finally start talking the other day,” he continued. Meche slowly shook her head. “I would have been too chicken to go talk to her otherwise. You practically caused this whole thing.”

She wiped her sweaty forehead with her arm. “Caramba, Luís. I just wanted to help you talk to her, I didn’t think you’d actually get set up on a date.”

Lewis forbade himself to repeat “It’s not a date!” Nothing he said could convince her otherwise.

She sighed and waved her hand at him. “Fine. Get outta here. I’ll come up with some excuse for you.” She looked up to glare at him, but the sparkle in her eyes gave away the fact that deep down, she really was happy for her cousin. “I can’t keep doing this for you, tonto. You owe me.”

Lewis frantically wiped his hands on the towel hanging from his apron and leaned into Meche for an unreciprocated hug. “¡Gracias, Meche! I owe you what Vivi should have paid you in tips!”

“Oh no, you owe me much more than that, idiot!” Meche laughed. “After all I do for you? I think you owe me a vacation while you cover for me at the restaurant!”

——

Lewis pulled up to the location Vivi specified a little after 7pm that evening, promptly killing the engine of his decrepit motorcycle that screeched like a banshee and coughed up dirty exhaust. The hand-me-down from his father had seen better days. He noticed a shiny van parked just ahead off to the side of the road, and he pulled his bike along the dirt trail to park it up against the van. Upon inspecting it up close, he noticed the shininess was due to a brand new paint job. Its fresh coat of orange paint glowed brilliantly in the moonlight.

“Hey, don’t park your bike too close to the van!” The cry of a concerned, teenage voice echoed from behind Lewis. “My brother just painted it.”

Lewis turned to see Vivi and Mystery heading his way from down the trail. They were accompanied by the boy the voice belonged to. Lewis instantly recognized him as the somewhat-grown-up version of the yellow-bellied kid they used to adventure with back in their larval stages.

“Lewis! You made it,” Vivi called. “I’d like to re-introduce you to Arthur King. You remember him, right? He used to go exploring and ghost-hunting with us when we were little!”

“Yeah, I do,” Lewis said to Arthur, extending his hand. “Pleasure to meet you again, Arthur. With the exception of all the acne, you haven’t really changed much from the nine-year-old face I remember.”

Arthur limply returned Lewis’s handshake and turned his head in embarrassment.

“Arthur’s uncle gave us the van, and they just painted it for us. Isn’t it awesome?” Vivi gushed. “I mean, no team of paranormal mystery solvers is complete without their own van! Thank goodness we’ve got Arthur on the team… he’s a mechanic!”

“Are we still waiting on a few more people?” Lewis wondered.

“Uh, well…no,” Vivi mumbled. “This is it.”

“This is the whole group?” Lewis reiterated, waving his hand at Arthur and Mystery. “Just the two of you and a dog? I guess when you said ‘investigation team’, I expected there to be, you know, a whole team.”

Vivi shrugged and twiddled her thumbs. “It’s been a bit of a challenge to get people at school interested in joining a paranormal investigation group. Not really everyone’s cup of tea, you know?”

“Sure as hell ain’t mine,” Arthur muttered. Vivi jabbed him with her elbow and cleared her throat loudly to distract from his words.

“Anyway, Mystery has already sniffed something out, and we were just starting to follow his lead when you showed up,” she explained to Lewis. “We better hurry and get going!”

Mystery, prompted by the mention of his name, tore off down the road and instantly placed about a second of lead time between him and the rest of the ragtag “paranormal investigation team”. Vivi grabbed Lewis’s hand and pulled him along as she sprinted ahead; Arthur tagged behind them somewhere. Lewis felt her fingers slip between his, locking their hands firmly into place. He felt his face flushing and gave silent thanks for the darkness that swallowed them as they disappeared into the woods.