Mazy maze

This story is a sequel to Come Little Girl in my Comic Strip that you can find on my page.

Elle licked the manjar glued to her thumb with delectation and stole some more from her toasted bread. It had a soft and sweet texture, akin to dulce de leche summer ice creams. The toast cracking under her teeth took her back to primary school memories and she swung her feet back and forth under the table. Meanwhile, Alf was focused. His giant map of Chile didn't fit on the tiny round table of the dim and silent café. Alf was convinced the place was the most authentic they could find around. At least it was quiet. And tasty. His index followed one of the roads while he compared town and river names on the map with those in his notebook. He had changed his mind again. Elle did not mind - she savoured her black tea.

"Did you hear back from Marta?" she asked with her full mouth.

"No."

"When is the show starting?"

His knees wriggled under the table - what was so challenging about finding a route, and a plan, for the day? Elleree wondered.

"Euh. Don't know. In two weeks or something."

"Didn't she say she'd confirm this morning?"

"Give me a sec, will you? I don't understand what I'm doing."

"I thought you had studied geography."

"I dropped out of college, Elleree."

"And didn't you go to primary school?"

He looked up at her but her words did not seem to reach his overstimulated brain. She asked her question again.

"Oui, bon, whatever. That was ages ago."

"I didn't know you dropped out of college." She split his avocado toast in two and pushed a slice towards him. He grabbed it, still looking at his notes, and crunched it. "What did you do after that?"

"I taught theatre and video production. Then I worked as a waiter," he circled a town's name with his pencil, "in Barcelona for five years. Then I traveled and then... Paris."

"You don't like Paris?"

"You know that feeling when you're living somewhere and you know something's off? It's like you're inside your reality and, at the same time, you're out of it. AND. At the same time you doubt it's reality."

"That's a lot of atthesametimes. Must be difficult to manage."

"You'd have doubted yours too."

"Why?"

"Well." He dropped his map, notebook and pencil. "I had just come back from Malaysia, entertained and tanned. I get a call from a 'lab assistant' asking me to jump on the first train to Arcachon - on the west coast, close to Bordeaux - because 'Oncle Fred has left a letter for you'." He imitated the voice of the assistant. "No idea who uncle Fred was but I thought I would enjoy the ocean if I went. I went. Met the assistant - you know those nerds on TV? Same. I follow her to her office, and ... Wait, you need to see that."

Alf drew what seemed to be a giant oyster.

"This is the place - a lab specialised in oysters." He giggled. "She announces me that Oncle Fred, who I still don't know and will never know, founded of the lab. I laugh in her face - wasn't mature at the time - and she hands me the letter. Apparently, he was the son of a distant relative to my grandfather. How did he know about me? No clue. But he had nothing in his life except oysters," Alf laughed, "so he decided to give me his money. Actually, we were two heirs: me and his chihuahua - Klapi. I thought I'd share the money with Klapi and move on, but que nenni. Oncle Fred refused to leave his fortune to a 'youngster who was fooling around in life', he did write that in the letter, so he decided to test whether I deserved a share of his money. If not, he'd leave it all to Klapi."

"Why not to his lab?"

"It had a foundation or something." Alf took a sip of dark coffee. "I didn't investigate to be honest. I just wanted to win."

"What was the challenge?"

"Lo and behold. This, as I said, is the lab. Oyster shape, two floors, white mezzanine with wood - cool design. Outside, a park like a golf course. See, like that. Statues of oysters here and there - some in granite, others in marble. AND." Alf sketched as he spoke. "At the back of it - a maze Oncle Fred had humbly designed, himself."

"Sounds like Greek tragedy."

"Looked like Greek comedy."

They laughed.

"So, how was the maze?"

"Mazy." Alf stopped laughing. "The maze was dynamic, but that I understood too late. The gate at its entrance opened only at midnight. I am not afraid of the dark. But. This, I did find creepy. The assistant had given me a tablet and a virtual reality headset. I had to answer questions to progress through the maze and depending on my questions the maze changed shapes." He stared at her. "Seriously."

"What kind of questions?"

"Bah, random. What else? Anything in that story that's not random?"

"He seems creative."

"Seems like he had too much free time." He touched his cup, pen, notebook and plate as he spoke. "This is real. We know what that is, we know what that's for, we know what we're talking about. That maze? For the life of me? Nightmare."

"Why?" she smiled, amused.

"What do you mean 'why'? The guy created a parallel universe and he forced me in."

"You jumped in."

"Well, I didn't expect it to be Wonderland. You know I cried the first time I saw that cartoon? I didn't cry watching Bambi but Alice in Wonderland, honestly, I freaked out after the first ten minutes. I still don't know what's worse - the rabbit or the cat."

"Klapi."

"Oncle Fred, by far. Anyway. I pressed the wrong button for question 1 -"

"You pressed the wrong button or you got it wrong?"

"Shh. The maze shook and crumbled. I was running around, panting and screaming-"

"Why? Wasn't it virtual reality?"

"It looked real."

She laughed.

"You go visit that maze since you're so smart."

"How long did it take you to find the exit?"

He mumbled something.

"How long -"

"Long." he mumbled slightly louder.

"Did you win?"

"You can't win or lose really, if you think of it."

"Did you win or not?"

"I got 10% success."

She chuckled.

"Oh, shut up. We'll see if you get to 2%, the questions were tough."

"What kind of questions?"

"Trivial Pursuit kind of questions and, before you make a stupid comment, let me tell you this: I am a king at Trivial Pursuit. That maze just caught me off guard."

"Right."

"10% is a good score - I got 10% of the money and I was very happy with the split. And one of the conditions to receive that money was to settle in Paris."

He folded his map and notebook. "Bon. You know what, how about we go wherever? Life is random anyway."