The Legend of Rich Goodburger, Pt. IV

As the day began, Alex quickly gathered that the burger-being was not leaving from his position outside the restaurant and would not fade from memory as he had hoped. This insight first came before noon when a group of ladies visited the diner during their lunch break from work, much to Alex’s surprise as the women had never been seen in the restaurant before.

“That new hamburger character y’all have outside is so cute!” one woman exclaimed.

“We normally walk right past this place on our way to lunch, but we just had to stop and take a look after seeing that adorable burger costume,” another followed.

“My children would absolutely love him…does the hamburger do birthday parties?” a third woman asked.

Alex was dumbstruck, without a clue of how to reply. “Umm…” was the best he could manage.

“Say, we’d better order if we’re going to get back to the office on time. Do y’all have salads?” one of the women asked.

Alex shook his head. “No…I’m sorry. We’ve got burgers mostly.”

“Oh dear, well perhaps we’d better head back to our usual lunch spot,” the first lady remarked. “Burgers are a bit too heavy for workday lunch. Although we’ll definitely have to bring our families back sometime so our kids can meet the hamburger!”

“The kids would just love him,” another agreed. “And they’re always an easy sell for burgers and fries.”

Alex watched as they quickly gathered together and headed out the front door. “Bye, Mister Burger,” he heard the women shout to the burger-being. “Have a nice day; see you again soon!”

As the day progressed, Alex was surprised to see a continued parade of new faces walk into the restaurant, each commenting on how delightful the character in the burger outfit outside was. While a few were disappointed to find a lack of variety on the menu, and others walked away slightly less than impressed with their meals, the majority of patrons seemed overwhelmingly pleased with their dining experience, mainly due to the pleasant mood that the burger-being had put them in. With the significant increase in customer traffic, Alex’s uncle began to notice the busier workload too.

“Alex, this is fantastic!” his uncle exclaimed as he rushed back and forth from helping in the kitchen to taking orders from customers. “I haven’t seen it this busy since that passenger bus got stranded across the street three summers ago. You’re gonna have to pick up the pace!”