Chapter 36

Sunday afternoon, Sally received a call from Ann letting her know that the mural was done, and that she should bring Dan over to see it. They rushed to the car and headed over to the pizzeria. As he drove, Dan said, “This is going to be it.”

“What do you mean?” Sally asked.

“I get to see the pizzeria as my customers will see it for the first time,” Dan said. So far, the pizzeria hadn’t been complete. Now all of the pieces were in place and he’d get to experience the full effect.

“I didn’t think about it like that,” Sally said looking over at Dan and seeing how excited he was about the whole thing.

As they pulled into the parking lot, Dan looked up at the sign. It had the picture of the smiling kid eating a slice of pizza, and with ‘Parker’s Perfect Pizza’ off to the side. The windows framing the front door had Parker’s Perfect Pizza painted on them. On one window, there was the caption, “A fun place to eat, where the rules are slightly bent.” On the other window, there was the caption, “You can’t eat a pizza with a frown.” The door had the hours of operation painted on it.

They walked up to the front door and found that it was locked. Dan unlocked it and entered the pizzeria. Just inside the door, he froze and looked around stunned by what he saw. Sally stood next to him with her mouth open. The mural was amazing. The pizzeria looked huge. It was as if the walls had disappeared.

After recovering from his initial shock, Dan asked, “Where’s Ann?”

“I don’t know,” Sally answered with a frown. She had expected to see her at the front door waiting to greet them.

Dan walked towards the back of the store. He found Ann in the empty play corner. She was curled up on top of her sleeping bag. She was out cold. Putting a finger to his lips, he softly said, “She’s asleep.”

“I don’t think we should wake her. She has to be pretty tired to have fallen asleep like that,” Sally said looking at her lover with affection.

Nodding his head, Dan looked around the room, checking out little scenes shown in mural. Each wall presented a different kind of scene. The side of the room closest to where he stood looked like a backyard. He went over to examine it a little closer.

One little portion of the back yard was filled with a birthday party. Little girls, looking very prim and proper, were all seated around a table graced with a humongous birthday cake. All of the candles were lit, and the birthday girl was posed to blow them out. Behind her, her little brother stood with a garden hose in his hand. The mischievous smile on his face was ample warning that the little girls were about to get wet. Off to the side, Mom was running towards him with her hands up in the air, and a look on her face that said she knew she was going to be too late to stop him. Dad was giving the little boy a thumbs-up.

Not too far from the birthday party was a scene of a dog in a tree, with a cat underneath it. The dog looked terrified. and the cat had this grin on its face that told the whole story about how the dog ended up in the tree. A squirrel was throwing a nut at the cat. A bluebird was looking upon the scene obviously puzzled.

The park scene filled the long side of the room. There was a sign that read, ‘Don’t walk on the grass.’ The word ‘don’t’ was crossed out. There was a kid tiptoeing away from the sign with a can of paint in one his hand, and a paint brush in the other. A policeman was standing with his back to the kid, unaware of what had gone on behind him.

There was a scene with two campers running out of the woods. Sasquatch was chasing them waving a fishing pole around in the air. Behind Sasquatch was a herd of photographers tripping over each other. Flashbulbs were going off on their cameras, but each camera was pointed at the ground. Parked nearby was a British double decker tourist bus with a sign reading ‘Big Foot Tours.’ The tourists were all facing in the wrong direction to see Sasquatch.

In another part of the park there was a picture of croquet game. Grandpa was holding his cane like it was a golf club, and he had just completed a long drive. A squirrel was flying through the air with a shocked look on his face. A rabbit was pointing at the squirrel and snickering. Grandmother, with a croquet mallet in her hand, was posed as if she was about to knock the rabbit though a croquet hoop.

There was a little path through the park. One scene showed a carriage being pulled by a man with a weary expression on his face. A horse wearing a top hat was in the seat cracking a whip to urge him to move a little faster. Behind the driver was another pair of horses dressed up like a bride and groom. A gopher watching the scene was scratching his head.

The third wall was filled with the interior of a house. It was a disaster. There was a broken vase on the floor, with two adults pointing at each other. A little child in a playpen was shaking his finger at them. A little bird was on the edge of the playpen with one wing cupped over its mouth like it was telling the child a secret and the other wing pointed at the adults.

There was a lamp that was bent and twisted with the bare bulb showing. Next to the lamp, a guy with a bright red nose was wearing the lamp shade. He was wrapped up in the curtains which were attached to curtain rods that were hanging with one end pulled off the wall. He had a finger up in the air as if he was delivering a speech. A young boy was taking his picture with a camera.

A teenage boy was running out of a darkened room. There were lipstick marks all over the boy’s face and he looked terrified. An old woman wearing a ratty blue bathrobe was chasing him. She had her arms open and her lips pursed as if she was trying to kiss him. Off to the side, a pretty teenaged girl was pointing at the boy and laughing.

There was a scene with a girl chewing on her fingernails, tips watching a scary movie on the television. The television had a picture of a woman about to be surprised by a monster. A young boy, wearing a gorilla mask, had his arms up in the air behind a couch. He was about to pounce on his sister. Behind the boy was a monster about to jump on him!

It was hard not to laugh at some of the scenes. It seemed to him that every where he looked there was something funny. All of the frustration at having to work around Ann disappeared. It had all been worth it.

When Sally came over to him, he said, “Welcome to Parker’s Perfect Pizza.”

“This is amazing,” Sally said. She pointed over to a corner and asked, “Did you see the scene with the woman tying the villain to the railroad tracks?”

“Not yet. I think it’s going to take a year to see all of the little details she’s put into this mural,” Dan said.

“Let me go to the bathroom, and then we’ll wake her up,” Sally said.

“Okay,” Dan said. He walked around room looking at the mural. If people didn’t have a good time there, he didn’t know what it would take.

Sally came out of the bathroom laughing so hard that it she was finding it hard to walk. She pointed in the direction of the bathroom and said, “You’ve got to see what she did in there.”

Dan went into the bathroom and nearly fell over. The walls were covered with paintings of advertising posters. One of the posters showed a before and after image of a woman. The before picture was of a gorgeous woman. The after picture showed a very frightening looking old hag. The caption read, “Evil Cosmetic Company. Bringing out the real you.” Another poster had a dozen bear traps scattered around a barbecue grill on which there was a steak cooking. and t The caption read, “Evil Cosmetic Company. We’re in the business of helping you catch that man.”

He walked out of the bathroom chuckling. Curious about what he would find in the men’s room, he decided to check it out while he was in the area. On the wall was a painting of a short man and a tall man. The short man was standing at a urinal that was impossibly high and the tall man was standing at urinal that was at floor level. When Dan stood at the sink, he realized the picture was visible in the mirror.

Painted over the real urinal was a very serious looking sign. Curious he stepped over to it to check it out. It read, “Flush twice. The competition is in a very distant second place, a long way from here!” Laughing, he stepped out of the bathroom.

He joined Sally over where Ann was asleep. She said, “She’s out cold.”

“I’ll carry her to the car,” Dan said bending down to pick her up.

As Dan carried Ann to the car, Sally said, “Thursday, right?”

“What’s Thursday?” Dan asked as stood beside the door of the car.

“Moving day,” Sally answered while opening the car door for him. His face was turning red.

Everything that had to be moved at the restaurant was already in place. Dan wondered what was going to get moved, but he’d be more than happy to help them. He dimly recalled a discussion about rearranging the living room. Setting Ann down, he said, “Sure. Moving Day. Thursday.”

By Wednesday night, Dan couldn’t believe what was happening. His cell phone was ringing every thirty minutes or so, from people wanting to know when the pizzeria was going to open for business. He had forwarded the landline for the store to his cell phone, so that he wouldn’t miss any important calls. As he went through the last minute work of getting the store ready for business, people would stop by and look in the window.

The whole staff was there for the final meeting. There was one other cook, two dish washers, and six waitresses. Everyone had been trained and now it was time to wait until the doors opened for real. They were all wearing blue jeans and t-shirts with ‘Parker’s Perfect Pizza’ written on them.

Dan said, “You’ll be pleased to know that everyone is off work, tomorrow.”

Since almost every conversation that day had been interrupted by the telephone ringing, Kevin said, “I think I’ll call in and order a pizza on my day off.”

Dan laughed and said, “I’ve been getting a lot of those calls. I’ve got a feeling that we’re going to be very busy when we finally open the doors for business.”

“You can say that again,” Sandra said. She had been stopped in the parking lot on the way in by someone wanting to know if they were open for business yet.

As if on cue, Dan’s cell phone rang. He interrupted the meeting to deal with another potential customer wanting to know if they were open for business yet. It only took a minute to explain that they were opening on Saturday.

Touching the button on his earpiece to end the call, Dan said, “I think our initial advertising campaign was a success.”

“You gave away enough pizza to feed an army,” Kevin said shaking his head.

“As I’m sure you heard me explain over the phone, we open Saturday at ten in the morning. I’m throwing a little celebration party Friday night for my friends. You’re all going to work that night because it’s going to be a big party. I’m expecting between a hundred and two hundred people to show up,” Dan said.

“That many?” Kevin asked. Cooking enough pizzas for that many people was going to be a lot of work.

Nodding his head, Dan said, “That’s right. It will be standing room only. We’ll take turns cooking the pizzas.”

“No problem,” Kevin said.

“We’re going to be offering the full menu. That means salads, spaghetti, meat ball sandwiches, and dessert items, too. We’ll see how it goes,” Dan said. He hoped that it wasn’t going to be a disaster. This little party was going to cost him between five hundred and a thousand dollars.

Vicki, one of the other waitresses, asked, “What will we be doing?”

Dan said, “That’s a good question. We won’t be charging for anything, so no one has to work the register. However, I want everyone to take a turn at the pizza station. This place is basically self service, so the rest of you will be going around keeping it clean. Collect the empty pizza pans because I’m pretty sure that we’ll be going through them like mad. As people finish their mugs of root beer, collect the mugs. I’ve only got two hundred of them. We’re going to have to wash them and chill them as fast as possible. Restock items when they start to get low. Have some fun.”