Just chill. The more people there are lining up for this food, the better it must be. I can’t imagine all these people would be standing here if it wasn’t worth the wait!
In the meantime, she supposed that she could enjoy the fresh, crisp mountain air and soak up the atmosphere. It really was lovely – just enough people to make it interesting, but not enough to be crowded. There was no jostling or yelling, and several passersby took the time to smile at Fillmore, even if he was having none of it and turned his head away in disdain.
A few lifetimes later, shefinallycrawled her way toward the front of the line.
Almost there. Just one more person to go –
“My goodness! Are you really sure you can eat all of that?”
Luna’s jaw slowly dropped open as the person in front of her – no, thepersonification of greed incarnate– scooped up the last ten containers of gulab jamun off the table, balancing them precariously in his arms.
“I really wasn’t expecting to buy all of this,” the man said – and indeed, he almost sounded a little surprised. “But suddenly I just felt like Ihadto have it! I mean, it looks so good.”
Itdoeslook good! That’s why I wanted it! But just one container, because I’m not a terrible excuse for a human being!
Luna could practically feel steam coming out of her ears. Sure, he wasn’ttechnicallydoing anything wrong, but it wasn’t really within the community spirit of the festival! She could’ve spent the past twenty minutes sampling the other delights on offer!
She took a slow breath, and let it out. It really wasn’t all that important. She’d just make sure to come in early tomorrow to grab some before it sold out. And it wasn’t like sheneededanything to eat right now. If anything, this guy was probably doing her a favor and keeping her stomach from exploding in front of everyone, which would really be embarrassing.
For now, she would just try the burfi, which shehadbeen sorely tempted to buy in the first place, anyway –
“And I’ll just take those as well, thanks.”
The stallholder blinked. “Which ones, sir?”
The man blinked back, still looking a little dazed. “All of them?”
Luna watched on in mute rage as the astonished woman slid the burfi –all of the remaining burfi– into paper bags and piled the whole lot on top of his precarious armload of gulab jamun.
“Uh, keep the change,” the guy muttered as he one-handedly fished out a handful of bills from his wallet and tossed them awkwardly onto the table, nearly dropping his precious cargo in the process. He staggered off into the distance, a dazed expression on his face.
Luna realized that her mouth had been hanging open for the entire duration of this travesty, and it was only with great difficulty that she was able to force it closed now.
My burfi! My gulab jamun! My impending indigestion!
“I am so sorry,” the stallholder said, and Luna tried to wave the apology off. “Tomorrow I’ll institute a limit on the numberof sales per person. I just never expected one person to buy so many!”
“Well, I can see why they did,” Luna said, smiling. Even though the treats were no longer there, she could still smell the lingering sweetness in the air. “I can’t wait to try them tomorrow.”
“Please do,” the stallholder said, still looking sheepish. “I’m sorry about the wait – I’ll make sure you get a free sample tomorrow!”
Luna assured her it wouldn’t be necessary – it hadn’t been her fault, after all – and wandered off into the crowd, silencing the voice inside her that told her she probably could have avoided all this if she’d just cut to the front of the line by flashing her journalistic credentials, such as they were. She didn’t want to become the kind of person who just took things for granted… and anyway, could you really write an honest review of a place if you weren’t experiencing it in an honest fashion? What was the point of going to a festival if you didn’t have to deal with the anticipation that came from waiting endlessly in line, not to mention the sore feet that inevitably accompanied it?
A buzzing from her pocket shook her free of her ruminations, and Luna pulled out her phone to see the all-too-familiar allcaps ramblings.
HA HA! DO YOU NOW SEE HOW MIGHTY I AM? ALL THAT YOU DESIRE SHALL BE DENIED YOU!!
That seemed… oddly specific, while still being incredibly vague at the same time. What on earth could they be referring to?
The only thing she had been denied recently was… gulab jamun??
Was all of this just an elaborate set-up to get her wanting delicious desserts, then buying them all out from under hernose? It seemed ridiculous, but then again, everything about this situation had been ridiculous from the beginning.
Baffled, she looked around, trying to see if she could find the man who had bought out the last of the desserts. After a minute she spotted him, trying to pick up a container that he had obviously dropped while desperately trying to keep from sending the rest of them tumbling to the ground, a look of confusion on his face. He certainly didn’t seem like someone who had just had the opportunity to send a self-aggrandizing text message.
It was very hard to know what to make of all this. Should she be worried? Amused? Was she currently being pranked by some kind of YouTube influencer who thought that sending weirdly threatening text messages was the height of comedy?
She made a decision: once she was done for the day and safely back at the B&B, she would text her editor about it. They could have a laugh, and her editor would reassure her that it was probably nothing, but also that he would take steps to look into it and make sure that there was nothing sinister going on.
