Mayor, small town, diamond

Sitting in my chair as I usually do on these Monday morning, listening to the birds chirp outside while I ponder the songs they sing. It is a lovely day outside and everything seems peaceful, calm and in its place. Except for my laptop which is broken on my desk in front of me, of course on one of the only days where I actually need to access the files I have stored in its hard drive. It has been at least fifteen minutes of me staring at the black screen cursing in my head about how I hate technology. Who knows how long Ned will take this time, that man doesn’t have a speedy bone in his body. I close my laptop and put it into its trendy carrying case that it doesn’t deserve.

Walking out the front door of my office building I spot my secretary’s newspaper that reads “diamond thief captured! Claims to have hidden diamond in little town of Ruckersville!” great, just great this news will bring every crazy within a few hundred miles of here rushing to find this diamond. All having a half-baked get rich quick scheme and a psychic feeling as to where the thief had hidden it.
“I’ll be back later Stacy, hold my appointments till then” I call out as I continue to walk outside; she doesn’t even look up from her texting. Young people these days, rather get their validation from a machine than an actual person.

“Mr. Mayor! Care to comment on the diamond thief story?” a reporter, sherry, yells at me shoving a microphone in my face, I walk past her without even a glance. What happened to the days when reporters studied the art of seduction, charming their way past security and secretaries, employees and locked doors. All for that one story that nobody else could get. Man I miss the old days.

Walking calmly down Main Street its clear everyone is anxious to get a plan and get to searching. How any of them expect to know where to look is beyond me, if I was that diamond thief I would have buried that diamond a hundred miles into the dessert from here. Nobody would ever find it, which is probably exactly what he did just saying that statement to get people riled up. People like that live to get reactions from others. Passing by the dinner that smell of a home cooked breakfast fills my nasal cavity. Might as well stop to eat, nobody will be in there. I’ll have that giant burrito all to myself!

“Howdy shug” says the waitress as I enter. 15 years running this place and Shelly is still a bombshell.

“The usual Shelly, and take your time nobody wants to me today I’ve been show up by a diamond” I say joking with her. The great food is only half the reason anyone comes to this dinner, the other half is to flirt with Shelly.

“No problem shug, I’ll be in the back, my cooks took the day off” damn diamond, even taking away my alone time with shelly. Oh well I could enjoy a little piece and quiet for a minute. Never seem to get that anymore either.

I hear the telephone ring in the back a few minutes later Shelly comes in and tells me her son fell off the monkey bars and broke his arm.
“You can have the meal for free honey but you’re going to have to go back there and cook it yourself, just lock up when you’re done?” she
tells me as she strips off her apron and shifts her attitude into mother mode.

“No problem, go take care of your boy, tell him I said hey”

“Thanks darling” pet names where Shelly’s specialty. So many single working men in this town makes since why she keeps using them.

Getting my hands dirty in the back is always fun, I’ve always loved cooking my own food and shelly had everything a kitchen could ever want. Except a ventilation system, place sure filled up fast with smoke once I started to burn the bacon.

After the cooking was done the burrito needed to cool down before I would eat it. My brother would always shove food right in his mouth just moments after it was done cooking. The top of his mouth must be callas by now, he said the heat brought out more of the flavor than to let it cool down. Looking around the kitchen I noticed how dirty it was and decided to help shelly out by cleaning the kitchen for her. First though I’d have to take out the trash if I planned to throw anything else away. I took off the lid of the tin trashcan in the back, there was only one trash bag but it took up the whole space inside when it should have only taken up half. I decided to investigate; I lifted out the trash bag inside to reveal a new looking back pack. It must belong to Cody, Shelly’s son, maybe she bought it for him and he didn’t want it so he hid it to not hurt her feelings. Well sorry Jr. Mr. mayor found your secrete. There was something in the bad so I unzipped it, my mouth dropped, inside was the most beautiful diamond I’d ever seen.