Scrap - One Last Ride

I started this story a very long time ago, and I've tweaked it here and there.  I have a pretty solid idea of where the story goes from here (a kind of space-faring adventure to find a treasure), but I just haven't gotten around to pulling it together.  Until then, it shall sit here.

Sarah leaned back against the metal wall, playing with the lace on her apron. It was a quieter night than most for Neverland Diner, where she worked as a waitress. She always thought these kinds of nights were depressing because the lack of work let her mind wander, which usually led to wondering what she was doing in such a dump.

Not that she hated working for Barris, the owner and only chef. He was gruff but kind in a grandfatherly sort of way. She figured the gray in his goatee and the bald head he hides under a baseball cap were the reasons why he seemed like a surrogate grandparent to her. At the moment, though, he saw her just standing there over the high counter where he handed her the orders to serve to the customers.

"Hey, if you've got time to sit around, you've got time to clean the tables. Go!" Barris barked from the kitchen.

"I just cleaned them five minutes ago!" Sarah said back, but she pulled herself away from the wall and took out the hand towel she had hanging at her side from the apron string.

Sarah didn't necessarily hate the Diner itself. It was a small restaurant where the walls, tables, and chairs were all made of steel, giving a very cold, factory-like atmosphere. But she knew Barris wasn't rich; steel was cheap because it was the main commodity of the space colony they lived in. The asteroid it was attached to was massive and would be providing such raw materials for several thousand more years.

As she started wiping down the tables again, she glanced around at the few customers they had. Chad, a regular, was asleep again in the corner, the bottle of whiskey he brought in with him almost empty. The other one Sarah had seen only a few times before. He looked like a miner who probably worked at one of the many mines within a few trolley stops from the diner. He had only asked for a cup of coffee, saying that he was only on break and had to be back shortly. He certainly looked like he was enjoying that one cup, though.

Seeing that neither customer needed her attention, she let her mind wander again as she wiped down another table. As much as she didn’t want to, she began to think back about how she ended up as a go-nowhere waitress in a dingy little diner. She had wanted to make something of herself on her own, striking out to seek her fortune in the big galaxy. Looking back, things had been hard, and it was all she could do just to stay afloat. For the hundredth time in the last week, she wondered if her parents weren't right in suggesting she go to college instead.

When the miner finished his coffee and wanted his check, Sarah had to come back to reality. She took his money and thanked him before walking over to the register to put it into the system. Thinking about the miner, she had to laugh at herself on the inside. Even for such a dangerous job, this miner had more going on than she did. When she had first set out, she didn’t have any kind of plan, simply assuming that things would come to her. She wanted to be a part of something bigger than herself, only to end up as something so insignificant.

"Oh, s-sorry," Sarah heard the miner say, causing her to look up. Apparently, as he tried to leave, the front door was filled by a much larger man, at least a head taller than the blue-collar worker. He stepped out of the way so that the stranger could come in, then disappeared outside. As the new customer walked in, Sarah was able to get an eyeful.

His height wasn't the only thing intimidating about him. His presence seemed to glow with a kind of wildness that, for the moment, was kept in check. He wore a filthy overcoat over what looked like a very old space pilot's uniform, and underneath he wore at least three belts, one of which Sarah was certain had a holster for a blaster. He had very thick sideburns that wreathed his face like a lion, and his long, dirty blonde hair bounced and swayed as he slowly stepped up to Sarah. She was frozen in place for a moment before gasping, remembering her job, and straightening her back.

"Welcome," she said, giving the best smile she could muster at that moment, "What can I help you with?"

"I'm starving, and I've only got five dollars. What have you got for five dollars?" the stranger said, his voice low and sounding incredibly tired.

Sarah glanced back at Barris who was watching from the kitchen. When he didn't make any suggestions or moves, she turned back to the tall man and inhaled to calm her beating heart. "Well, we could probably make you a cheeseburger, or perhaps you'd be more interested in a chicken burrito."

The stranger didn't say anything for a moment, as still as a statue, before eventually responding. "Cheeseburger sounds fine," he muttered. Then he loped to an empty table on his own and took a seat.

"Would you like something to drink?" Sarah asked.

"I've only got five dollars," he responded slowly. She wondered if he always sounded like this or if he really was just that exhausted.

"I can get you a glass of water," Sarah said, regaining more confidence with each response.

The stranger sat there motionless for another moment before finally nodding.

"We'll get started on your order right away," she said, smiling more naturally at this point. She turned around and made her way to the kitchen. "A cheeseburger," she reported to Barris.

"Right," Barris responded, staring at the strange customer for a moment before tearing his eyes away from him. He dug out the frozen hamburger patties from a freezer as Sarah found a clean glass and began filling it with ice.

"What do you think he does for a living?" Sarah whispered over the crunching of ice.

"To be honest, I'm not really sure," Barris said, breaking off a patty and dropping it on the greasy grill.

"Really?"

Barris shook his head, then spoke: "All I can think of is something my grandfather told me when I was little. When he was a boy, he worked on repairing sea-sailing ships and from time to time he would see sailors who had come in from a terrible storm, looking something like our customer there. Or at least so I imagined. My grandfather said that they looked like their souls had been hammered into nothing by the power of the seas, and I think I see something like that with him." Barris jerked his thumb at the stranger when he finished his story, then flipped the burger to cook on its other side.

Sarah thought to herself as she filled the glass with water. When it was full, she turned to Barris and asked, "Do you think he might be a bounty hunter?"

Barris chuckled as if it was the most ridiculous thing he'd heard, but when he didn't say anything afterward, Sarah raised an eyebrow at him. When Barris glanced back at her, he shrugged and smiled, saying, "Could be."

Sarah snorted, thinking Barris was just teasing her, as she stepped back out to the tables. She placed the glass of water on the stranger's table and saw that he hadn't really moved since she last saw him, still resting his arms on his knees and staring blankly into nothing. His mouth even hung open a little.

"Here's your glass of water. Your cheeseburger will be out in a moment," Sarah said brightly, but the stranger didn't even notice her. When it seemed that she wouldn't get a response anytime soon, she walked back over to her place on the wall and leaned against it, crossing her arms. She stared at him from across the diner, trying to figure him out. He certainly could be very intimidating, combining his stature and his wild appearance, but he seemed so sullen and tired the few times he did speak, resulting in a lot of mixed signals.

"If you've got a few moments, why don't you wake up Chad an' get him out of here," Barris said over the sizzling of the grill.

"He's not harming anyone," Sarah argued back.

"Eh, I'm tired of looking at him. It's probably time he left anyway. I should make him pay me for all the hours he's slept here."

"Or you could turn this place into a bed and breakfast," she teased.

"Just go," Barris said with an obvious hint of impatience, and Sarah walked across the diner to the deadbeat customer.

Chad was traditionally a deep sleeper, so Sarah got used to simply giving him a huge push to wake him up. However, just as she placed her hands on his shoulder, she saw that his eyes were wide open, staring at the wild man. To Sarah, he looked frozen in fear.

“You're awake?” Sarah whispered.

“Yeah, right when that crazy-lookin' guy walked in,” Chad said, sounding surprisingly sober.

“Feel like leaving?”

“Yeah.” The drunkard grabbed his coat and his mostly empty bottle and lightly stepped his way out, already having paid for his meal before he passed out. Sarah started to wipe down the now vacated table, but took occasional glances at the stranger. If he noticed Chad leave, he made no show of it as he continued to stare at the table. Even his glass of water was still full.

“Cheeseburger!” Barris yelled, setting the plate on the high counter. Sarah turned back to pick it up, only to find something extra on the plate.

“Hey, Barris!” she whispered, “What's with the fries?”

“Tell him it's a discount,” Barris whispered back. Sarah gave him a knowing smile but Barris had already turned towards his grill again, cleaning it with his spatula. She took the plate over to the stranger and placed it on the table.

“Here you go,” Sarah said in her work voice.

“A 'discount', huh?” he said, his words still as slow as usual, but now with a bit of menace. Suddenly, it seemed like the stranger was three times as big as before, making Sarah freeze in place. At first, she wondered if he could have heard their conversation and was offended by the kindness. Then, she saw the tiniest sign of a smirk under the wild man's hair.

“I take it I'm not your usual type of clientele,” he said, calm and tired once again. Then he reached out to the plate and grabbed the hamburger. “Does this 'discount' come with ketchup?” he added.

“I'll get it right away!” Sarah blurted, her voice cracking a little in fear. She had never felt so intimidated in her life as she made her way over to the condiment rack on the wall. His presence felt like that of an old, mean general. He certainly didn’t feel like that when he first walked in. She wondered if this is what it was like to be a part of something bigger than herself as she struggled to remember which bottle was the red one.

“More unusual customers,” Barris muttered, and Sarah spun around, her heart still pounding. At the diner's front door stood three more unfamiliar men. Two of them were dressed in military uniforms, looking quite grim and wary, and they looked like they were bodyguards for the third man who was significantly smaller and wore a very nice suit and a dark, solid-color tie. His slicked back hair made Sarah think he was some kind of shady businessman. The three of them walked into the diner, and the shorter man quickly found the worn stranger and walked over to him in recognition.

“There you are!” he stated, clearly agitated, “Do you know how long I've been looking for you?”

The stranger seemed to take no notice of the new man as he put a few fries into his mouth. The body guards quickly stood on either side of the wild man, their eyes burying him into the ground.

“What are you doing here? I gave you a job! Why aren’t you doing it?” the shorter man screamed, his hands waving all over the place in frustration.

“I’m eating,” the wildman said monotonously, not looking up from his plate. He reached for the glass of water, but one of the mooks reached ahead of him and knocked it off the table, the water spilling across the metal floor. For a moment, the stranger did nothing, his hand still hovering where the glass used to be. Then he put his hand down on the table and looked up at Sarah.

“Excuse me, ma’am. May I have another glass of water?” he asked, sounding a little more pleasant than before, even giving her that tiny smirk again.

Sarah was still frozen next to the condiment cabinet, but she gulped and then nodded to him, putting the ketchup that was in her hand into the pocket of her apron and walking over to the glasses to find a new one.