Naomi’s Corner

"Wake up, you sleepy head!" A firm shake of Naomi's shoulder accompanied the laughing words.

"I don' wanna." She mumbled as she thrust the blankets over her pretty face, but her brown hair peeped above the wall of warmth.

"But it's your birthday! If you don't get up I'll eat your cake!" Mona threatened. She was of fair hair, and blue eyes and was Naomi's best friend with whom she lived with. Naomi's parents died when she was ten, leaving her as the sole heir to everything they owned when she came to be of age.

With the threat of no cake, Naomi sat up sharply and with a look of extreme horror in her green eyes, said, "If you do, it'll be the last thing you ever do--I saw that cake! It's huge!"

"Ahh! Finally, you're up! I thought I might have to resort to threatening your presents."

With a chuckle and a firm push out the door to remove Mona from the premises, Naomi got dressed.

"Twenty one years old, whew! That's old!" Mona welcomed Naomi when she came down.

This was replied with a pillow shot with impeccable aim.

"So what do you want to do today?" The victim of the missile asked.

"I want to go and get a restaurant." Naomi promptly replied.

"Ah, ok. Do you want to go to get Chinese or burgers or what?"

"No. I want to go get a restaurant."

"What? I know you're old and all of that, but you shouldn't be jabbering nonsense just yet. Unless of course you just age faster, which may be the case." Mona said regarding Naomi with a critical eye.

"Har har. But I mean the restaurant that my parents left to me when they died. They always wanted to own a restaurant, and they did! They made it so pretty-- too bad they passed away so soon after it opened, but I feel as though I should keep up their legacy and their dream."

"That's so sweet. Ooh, and the money that they left you can help fix it up! I've heard it is pretty dilapidated."

"Really? Ugh, I hope not too dilapidated. I need the money, and I don't have the time to fix it too much, just a couple of days."

Later that day, they went to get the deed to the restaurant, a seemingly simple task. It was not so easy. After they finally acquired it, they headed straight for the actual building.

"Wow." Was all that Mona could utter, for the smell made her hold her breath.

"Wow is right!" Naomi gagged.

The inside smelled of rotting food, and the place was in utter disrepair.

"It looks great!" Naomi said, though her sweater, which acted as a gas mask.

"I hope that was sarcasm, because if not, I don't trust your judgement anymore."

Naomi weaved in and out of the tables and chairs that were laying on their sides and backs. She made her way to the kitchen, where the smell became stronger. She made a mental note that the appliances were in great condition, they just needed a little cleaning.

"Lets get out of here." Mona choked out right before she made a flying leap towards the front door.

"Oh, it wasn't that bad." Naomi chided, when she joined Mona out of doors. "It was only bad if you breathed."

"Hmpt. It crawled up my nose without me breathing. Oh, that smell was awful."

"Ok, agreed." giggled Naomi.

The next day, Naomi took off of work and went to her eatery. She picked up all of the trash, and aired the place out. She then took all of the furniture and put it in the backyard, and vacuumed the floors. While the tables and chairs were outside, she cleaned them off and then was able to drag them back inside. She cleaned out the kitchen, found the smell, and cleaned that out, too. She wanted to do more, but it was seven, so she made her way back to Mona.

Days of this sort of thing went by. She cleaned, and bought, and sorted, and hired, and all of the necessary things.

Then the opening day came, and she dubbed her new place "Naomi's Corner". She was there to greet guests and help the servers. Customer after customer came in and sat down. They seemed to like it, but not love it.

The next day came, but so little people showed up, they didn't even break even, and so many days like this came by, that Naomi declared that she would have to close.

Forlorn, she went home and looked through her parent's old stuff, which always seemed to cheer her up. She found a copy of their wills, and in it, she saw something that piqued her curiosity. It was the number to a bank vault.

She raced to the bank and gave them the password for the vault and nervously shifting her weight from one foot to the other, she waited for them to come back with the key.

After about fifteen minutes of waiting, they came slowly with the key. She snatched it up and ran to the vault, but fumbled with the key before swinging the door open. Inside was a box. A tiny box. Cautiously, she opened it and inside she saw notecards. She lifted one up and on it was a recipe! She quickly ran her fingers through the others and found that they were all recipes.

A smile shone on her face as she ran out of the bank, and rushed inside the restaurant.

"I've got it!" She cried. "I've got it! Cook Bantorloch come here! Cook with these recipes! They are my parents famous recipes! I've got to go and print posters for the re-grand opening of Naomi's Corner!" And with that she raced out of the building and to the printer's shop.

People, willing to give a second chance, came back. This time they loved it!

Naomi, quitting her other job, became so famous that people had to reserve seats, and her restaurant became a first class eatery.

The End