“So….why are we here again?”

Christopher Cwej tore his face away from the window, glancing over at his young charge sheepishly.

“Well, uh, I was kind of hoping it would be…”

“… open?” Sang Mi suggested.

It had been a slow weekend back at their temporary home, mostly consisting of Sang Mi repeatedly beating Chris at Monopoly: Spaceport Five Overcity Edition and the two of them lazily working their way through a bad hospital drama, occasionally joined by Sang Mi’s track teammate Martha, who was a huge fan of the show for reasons the pair couldn’t parse. They’d been waiting for any new development or clue to appear, but all was quiet on the Illinois front.

So it had come as quite a surprise for Sang Mi when Chris abruptly bustled her into their car in the middle of the night and drove them out to one of Violethill’s little commercial plazas, stopping before a very much closed pizzeria.

Not that that had dissuaded him from trying to go in anyway.

Indeed, the instant he finished talking to Sang Mi, Chris had his face back on the glass, peering into the nighttime gloom of the diner’s main room.

”I think I can see the night guard’s office lights from here! If I can just get his attention…” 

Sang Mi clapped her hands together and pointed them at Chris. “Chris, my man, again, what are we doing here? You were looking like an excited puppy the whole way here, but you still haven’t explained squat!”

Chris’ shoulders slumped as he turned back to Sang Mi, seemingly defeated. “Yeah, I knooooow, I’m sorry Sang Mi. It’s just that this place — or, well, this diner chain anyway — is kind of special to me. I wanted you to experience the magic!”

Sang Mi squinted up at the diner’s sign. It was a garish relic from the 1980s, proudly announcing itself as: “Danny’s Diner: Pizza, Games, and More!” in blocky neon font. Above the words, the sign was crowded with a menagerie of cartoon mascots, a smiling deer in a brown suit taking center stage amongst them.

“Uh-huh. And your idea of magic is a discount cartoon mascot themed pizza place?”

Following her line of sight, Chris broke into a smile. “Ey, the whole gang! Oh, uh, I mean, yeah, kinda? I know they’re way less advanced here in the 21st century, but back where I come from, Danny’s Diner was the ultimate in animatronic entertainment — pizza wasn’t half bad either! My parents used to take me there for my birthday, or when I did something they were proud of, or when I did good in school, or honestly kind of for anything! I loved the place! At least, from what I can remember.”

Chris stopped himself at that, his eyes heavy for a moment as he traced a finger over his weary reflection in the glass.

With a start, that other side was gone, and Chris was pointing out each of the diner’s mascots, grinning all the while. “Oh man, speaking of remembering, look at these guys! Matthew Mole, Silas Stoat, Benny Bear, er…whoever those guys are. I mean, the line-up changed a lot from now until my time — kind of a shame Sylvia the Snow Leopard isn’t around yet — but it’s still the same! Especially since it’s always had the same main man, Danny Deer!” He finally took a breath, and his eyes softened with nostalgia as his breath fogged up the glass. “I guess the place just gave me a lot of joy, and I wanted to share that with you.”

Sang Mi smiled at the disappointed Adjudicator and glanced inside the diner again. She could barely make out the antlered form of the Danny Deer robot on the main stage. The rest of the robots were nothing but humanoid ink blots in the meagre half-light of the diner’s sign, but she could see what her friend meant.

Or, at least, she could appreciate the thought. After all, not many people really let her in on the things that gave them joy like this; could she really fault him if the source of that hidden joy was a dinky robot diner?

She lightly punched Chris in the arm. 

“What was that for?”

“For taking me out to a random closed diner in the middle of the night! But this,” she wrapped her arms around Chris in a hug, “Is for trying to show me something that mattered to you. Maybe next time, huh?”

“Yeah…” Chris hugged her back and smiled. “Yeah. Maybe next time.”