Final Story

Allie Moore


P.2

Final Creative Writing Story



“Kids, your mother and I have very exciting news for you!” Mark turned to his family at the dinner table. “The first payment for the lease went through at the empty building on the corner! We can start that restaurant we’ve always dreamed of!”

The five, seven, and ten year olds jumped up and down like kangaroos. This had been something the family had wanted for a long time. Mark had always dreamed of opening up a Greek restaurant to honor all of his Greek ancestors. He had gone through years of cooking school, but they never quite had the resources to be able to afford a building. His wife Lisa had been working for years to be able to help her husband’s dream. She was going to quit her job after the restaurant was established so she could just be there for her family. Hopefully it would be enough.

The next few days were filled with a million meetings with interior designers, contractors, and health inspectors. Everyone in the area would walk by the building and wonder in excitement about what the empty space would be. Everything would be done in about ten months. Mark’s family helped with any painting and tiling they could to help the contractors get it done faster. The kids Jane, Christy, and Tom would bring the contractors sandwiches everyday to make sure they were happy! For the next ten months, everything was pretty happy in their small town of Stonefort. Lisa would be able to quit her job in about a year, too!

The interior of the restaurant had a green and white color scheme. Every table had fresh flowers, white tablecloths, and black chairs. There were pictures and maps on the walls from Mark and Lisa’s adventures to Greece. People would walk through the double doors, down a short hallway, and into smaller-sized dining room. The doors to the kitchen were immediately to the left of the door entering the dining room. The family hoped they would be able to extend the walls of their dining room after a few months.

The restaurant opened, finally, exactly ten months from the start of the project. People waited at the door to enter and finally taste Mark’s famous homemade pita bread and gyros. The menu had a wide variety of Greek salads, cheese, chicken and lamb gyros, Moussaka (eggplant casserole), among many other different kinds of ethnic Greek foods. All the people living in the area raved about the food at the restaurant. Food critics and newspapers rolled in after a few months. All the critics loved the food, and the newspapers wrote extraordinary reviews telling everyone to eat there when in the area. Mark and his family were ecstatic.

Lisa was still working her job at this point, just until the remodel. She didn’t really like working at the publishing house, but it did help out the family a great deal. If they were able to pocket most of the income from the restaurant, they could use her income to pay for the remodel. They would have a bigger restaurant which would mean more customers. More customers meant more money for the family. She was happy to see her husband so happy.

Five months later, Mark and Lisa decided that they had enough money to go through with the renovation. They would shut down the restaurant for two weeks.

Five day into the renovation, Mark received a call in the middle of the night. There was a fire at the restaurant! The cause was from the gas line running to the main stove. Mark rushed over to the building immediately while Lisa stayed home with the kids. He talked to a police officer. The officer explained that he wouldn’t be able to go inside until it had been inspected and deemed structurally sound. Mark just had to wait for the call.

After two quiet days in the house, Mark received the call from the inspector. He was able to go into the restaurant now. Lisa went with him while the kids stayed with their grandma. They passed through the door and into the burnt dining room. The once white tablecloths were now black, the flowers gone, and the chairs now matched the whole room. The green walls had a darker tint to them. Everything in the kitchen had been eaten by the flame. The couple started tearing up as they saw their creation was ruined.

People from all over the city came to Mark’s house to offer sympathy. He knew he had a lot of support, but he was still disappointed that his dream was not in reach at the moment. He wondered if he would ever get the restaurant back. The next day, the insurance company got in touch with Mark. If they wanted to repair it, they would have to pay $50,000 in damages. Clearly, they didn’t have that kind of money.

People in the town would walk past the building and hope they could eat at Mark’s restaurant again in the future. It was a shame that such a great place would have such an unfortunate event happen.

Lisa and Mark talked about it a bit and decided that Lisa should keep her job and they should wait a while to open the restaurant again. The whole family was disappointed as they wondered if they would actually be able to open the successful restaurant again.