23 Polly the Salesman
“Lookin good fledge,” remarked SAT as Polly stepped back into Mr. Croix’s restaurant now decked in a casual tee and jeans, a stark contrast to her previous old-fashioned look. However, her high and kind of messy ponytail had not changed.
“Thanks. I’ve gotta say I’m feelin’ pretty good too. So how’s the plan looking?”
Polly joined the small circle of Mr. Croix, SAT, Wiki, and Ed at the table they were at. Somehow all the grilled cheese sandwiches that had been taking up space had disappeared in the two hours she was gone. Not a crumb nor a trace of grease was left.
“It’s a ways past lunch, which means the prime time for eating a grilled cheese is over,” began Croix. “But that’s fine and dandy because we planned to start promoting tomorrow anyways. It’s just too bad we had to do what we did with all the sandwiches I already made.”
Polly wanted to ask how exactly the sandwiches had gone poof, but she feared the answer. She wasn’t sure if she’d rather learn all that food had been wasted or the group had become patrons of the god of binge eaters and inhaled it all. So, she chose to stay quiet.
“Tomorrow I’m hopin’ you fellas can come around 11 AM and we can draw in some customers lookin’ for lunch. I was thinkin’ I’d send each of y’all out to a different district of the island, probably the poorer ones if I’m bein’ honest. I doubt the richer ones would let us go wanderin’ around pandering goods.”
“Anything you need us to do today?” asked Polly.
“I think everything for today’s been taken care of,” Croix replied. “Really appreciate the help you fellas have given me, I don’t know if I could thank y’all enough.”
“It’s no problem, good sir, but you might want to save the thanks for after we bring you some customers.”
“You’ve got a fair point there.”
Polly and Co. departed shortly after, and Polly, SAT, and Wiki figured they’d show Ed around The Capital and then spend the rest of the day rolling around like potatoes at Melonpan. And so the day passed with the four finally having a day to enjoy doing nothing. It was a change of pace Polly appreciated for the start of her adventures had been their fair share of hectic.
Back in her room, Polly had returned to her blanket burrito and there was not a single thought floating in her completely empty head, just the way she liked it. Though it was only late afternoon, she began to drift asleep, and succeeded in sleeping long enough to finally get her sleep schedule back on track.
x x x
The sun was high in the sky, lively conversation and the scent of fresh baked bread filled the air, and Polly felt like a minimum wage worker trying to get people to check out a way overpriced car wash for a club fundraiser.
She held a tray with a small heap of squares of grilled cheese sandwiches rather than a large cardboard sign, so there was a limit to how many fancy tricks she could do to draw attention.
It was times like this Polly wished she had actually stuck to learning a musical instrument so she could whip out a violin and bang out some tunes and watch people throw coins in her violin case, or in this case come up to her and ask how she was able to play a violin while holding a tray full of grilled cheese squares.
To that, Polly imagined she’d respond with something along the lines of, “While you were not buying grilled cheese sandwiches from Croix’s Crispy Crunches, it’s walking distance from The Capital by the way, I studied the blade,” and fwip her long brown ponytail around to really drive the point home. Of course she’d take great care to ensure no stray strands of hair would accidentally hit the sandwiches because that’d just be nasty.
Unfortunately that scenario was one Polly could only dream of, and the sad reality was that none of the passersby walking past her seemed interested in what she was advertising. Croix had deployed her to the most populated street out of the four because when planning, the five had figured people were probably more likely to strike up conversations with a human than a bird.
Polly couldn’t say if their guess was correct, namely because she didn’t know how the birds were doing, but she was pretty sure a clown hiding in a sewer would get more attention than she was getting at the moment.
“Lookin’ jolly good today,” tried Polly as a man in a powder blue fedora breezed past her. He spared her a glance and a tip of his hat, but no more.
“Happen to be interested in a top notch grilled cheese?” asked Polly to two children flouncing past her. They were interested, but snatched the squares and bounced so fast that Polly had no chance to market Croix’s restaurant.
“Freeloaders,” huffed Polly to herself under her breath, though she couldn’t be totally mad at them because she’d done the same thing plenty of times when she was but a lass. Perhaps it was karma.
The street she was on now happened to be relatively close to the clothing store she was at yesterday, so Polly figured she’d walk there. Perhaps Yellow and Brown would be interested in a grilled cheese sandwich. It could be her thanks to them for allowing her to get so much good clothing for cheap.
So there she went, and on her way she was successfully able to grab the attention of a few people. Or so Polly thought, for they did turn to look at her, but they didn’t actually try to talk to her.
“Welcome back,” sang Yellow as Polly entered. “Looks like you have something with you today.”
“Ah, yup. Do you guys like grilled cheese sandwiches? I have some pretty good ones here. They’re from Croix’s Crispy Crunches, I don’t know if you guys know the place because it’s pretty small, and I’m trying to help it get customers. Oh yeah, and they’re free, and um, thank you guys again for the huge discount.”
“Aww, it was no problem at all,” replied Brown, tucking a strand of her brown hair behind an ear. “Well we’ve never turned down an offer for free food, have we?” she asked, turning to her partner.
“Of course not. We’d be fools to.”
While Yellow and Brown left their positions from behind the counter for the sandwiches, Polly looked around the shop and noticed that once again there was not a single item of clothing she recognized. It wasn’t because her memory was beyond salvageable garbage though, which was usually the case. It was because the store had a completely new set of products.
Now strung on the walls were summer and party dresses, and displayed around the store were ballroom and evening gowns. The colorful and even sparkly apparel was quite the contrast to the store’s dark gray, almost black, walls.
“What happened to everything from yesterday?” asked Polly.
“We felt like switching things up,” shrugged Yellow. “I think we decided on shoes and hats for tomorrow, is that right dear?”
“Shoes and hats? I thought you said shoes and cats. I’ve already prepared all the cat-themed clothing, could we just do that instead?”
“Shoes and cats sound like a banger idea. You heard the miss,” Yellow said to Polly. “Come back tomorrow if you need shoes or cat-themed clothes.”
“Sure,” replied Polly, though she didn’t really need either of those. However, it wasn’t like she had anything else on her calendar.
“These sandwiches are pretty good,” remarked Brown.
Polly’s heart skipped a beat with excitement.
“How ‘bout you leave that tray here? My cousin’s friend’s brother’s mom is going to be here in a few. She has a fair amount of connections on this island, so if she likes them I’ll ask her to spread the word.”
“For real?” gasped Polly.
“Nothing would make me happier than helping out a fellow small business.”
“Thanks so much,” said Polly who was so touched that she was at a loss for words. “I..I-”
“Don’t think too much of it,” said Brown who could evidently see the rusted cogs in Polly’s brain doing their best to churn out something that sounded meaningful. “You know, back when we were just starting out there was a restaurant that did the same for us. The owner bought some clothes off of us and would wear them around. His customers would ask where he got them and he’d refer them to our place. Cost him nothing but meant the world to us. So I guess what I’m saying is do nice things and you’ll have repaid us plenty.”
“It does feel nice to be nice,” added Yellow, taking the tray from Polly’s hands and setting it next to the cash register on their counter.
“I guess it does,” replied Polly.
The three chatted for a few more minutes about what they had been up to since the other day, and then Polly took her leave to regroup with the kiwis and Croix at the restaurant.
Much to her surprise, the three birds had been wildly successful and the place was full. There were even a few folks standing outside waiting for a table to open up. The kiwis were flying from table to table with plates on their head and wings.
“Polly help us out here, would ya,” called Croix from the kitchen.
“Sure thing,” she hollered back as she sped to the kitchen. As soon as she arrived, Croix dumped two plates on her and gave her instructions on where to take them. The restaurant didn’t look like it would be going empty anytime soon, and Polly just hoped she’d be able to keep up until it did.
