A plate of Maafe

Lina and Matteo prepared to leave the office. After he revealed to her the supposed date where the army of undead would come to attack the city, her reaction was surprising, or rather Matteo didn't expect such a reaction from her. When she heard the information, Lina just commented a few words before changing the subject. She began by trying to scout Matteo and bring him to her office so he could lend her a hand with the administrative matters as, according to her observation of him, she estimated that he was fully capable to take the job. Matteo initially turned her down but he later came to know that Lina can be very convincing when she wanted. After insisting a little more and giving him some irrefutable arguments, Matteo was cornered and couldn't do otherwise but helping to finish all the work she had to do on that day.

Lina was particularly happy since she came to leave the office earlier than usual.

In fact that work was, a little bit, related to Matteo since it was a matter concerning the refugees.

Knowing that their hometowns were undergoing some hardships, she was pretty sure that even if the war ended in the upcoming days they might not be able to go back up the slope as the town would be too much damaged and the resources not enough to sustain not forgetting the pain of the souvenirs of the relatives they might lose or they might have lost, already, there.

That was why she came up with an idea, she thought that it would be preferable and reasonable to make Stainfall their new home by offering them the lifestyle they couldn't find in their previous hometowns. Moreover, even though it could be considered that the city she was leading was far in a better condition compared to the others, they were not doing as well as it could be thought. The remaining population, after the night of the tragedy, was not enough to rebuild the city, at least they managed to secure the necessary resources to survive as there was a hospital which was still working with the minimum of staffers needed, there were some farms where they could get enough food to satisfy all Stainfall's population and the most advantageous detail was that they had competent people who were struggling every day to ensure that there was no problem in the other domains.

However, Lina was fully aware that the city had still many lacks, and to fill these gaps, Lina was about to ask for the help of the refugees. She started her researches to collect the competencies of any single of them and after finishing that she intended to send each of them to their corresponding jobs.

There were too many refugees they had to collect their data from, so that morning she just had the time to initiate the first part of her plan with the few files she had obtained, with the help of Matteo, of course. They achieved to find corresponding jobs for each them and they even had the time to redact and send to them letters in which they were asking them if they would like to the work they had been offered. Lina was aware of the fact that they just arrived in town, running away from a nightmare, and they were not particularly in the mood to work but she thought she still had to grab the chance.

" Do you think they will accept? " Matteo asked Lina while she was arranging the remaining files for the last time before they left. She stood up with a satisfying smile after finishing what she was doing, she went to pick up her bag before she responded, " why not? There is no reason to refuse such a work proposition, and even if they eventually wanted to refuse, they would not have the choice, they will sooner realize that we will not continue to feed them for free, they will have to get money if they want to have some food in their plates ".

" I don't talk about that, " Matteo said while shaking her head, " do you think they will accept to stay and live here? ".

Lina gazed at him, " Yes I do. Let me explain why, before coming here, they were living in unsafe places where they were all times scared to be killed or raped. They were living in constant fear of the danger since that sinister night, I think this town is the only place where they can somehow find peace and security after all what they went through, their hometowns carry too many bad souvenirs, " she affirmed in one breath, " I cannot promise them that they will gain back the lives they used to have before the tragedy, however, I can promise them a new beginning ".

Matteo's face became gloomy, " You are talking as if there was no probability for us and this city to be destroyed as well ".

" Until now you cannot still believe in us, hmm? " Lina directly asked him.

" No... I mean... it is not like I don't trust you... that is not what I wanted to say... " Matte struggled to find his words as he was surprised by her question.

She lifted her hand to hold him on " let me tell you something you better remember when the three of us are on something we rarely fail. Thanks to whom do you this city is so safe? Jamal was, indeed, the one to fight in the front but all his efforts would have been completely useless if Natasha and I didn't contribute to coordinating his tasks and greatly make his job less difficult, without us he would have fought endlessly. And I want to highlight that just with the three of us, we did all this while entire cities failed. So you better have some faith in us because we will definitely protect this town once again ".

They. later, left the office and Lina gave Matteo a drive to Natasha's house, she told him that she would come for the reunion after she passed by her home. When she arrived at her home she just took a shower and changed her clothes before leaving the house again.

On the way to Natasha's house, she passed by Saidu's restaurant, her favorite but also one of the only four restaurants in the city which were still working.

" Hi, chief! " She said to greet Mr. Saidu the owner of the restaurant.

" Hey Miss Lina, how are you? " He greeted her back, " Still in love with our hero? "

" First of all, I'm the one true city's hero, secondly, yes I do still love him he is too hot and in third my job became a little so exhausting lately that I'm thinking about giving him my title of 'hero' so I can take a break, " Lina responded with her usual radiant energy.

The chief laugh loudly as he is rarely able to resist Lina's jokes, " hopefully you're still as funny as ever. So I will be honest with you, too " he pointed his thumb in his direction as he said " I'm the hottest guy in here no matter what my wife says, " they both burst out laughing together and they took several seconds before they could calm down.

" Well, so what do you want today? Since you don't like eating the same foods every day it's almost impossible to predict what you would order, " Saidu asked her.

Lina smiled, " before telling you I would want to discuss something ". She then began to tell him about her idea of offering jobs to refugees to integrate them well into their society but also to permit the reopening of many abandoned businesses. She also explained to him that she had already started the investigation of the skills of each of them and in the domain of catering she had already found two. And finally, she asked whether it would be possible for him to help them get their marks.

After she finished, the chief took a moment to think, he asked her " so you are asking to help my future rivals getting their marks in the field of catering and restoration, huh? "

" Is it too pretentious of me to make such a request? " Lina asked with a little voice, as she thought it was maybe too much to tell him to help them. However, Saidu finally smiled cheerfully and shook his head as he replied, " not at all it is the opposite, I think it's a very idea to let them inherit the old businesses which remained closed until now, so of course it's with great pleasure I will help you form them. And anyway I know that no matter what happens this restaurant of mine will remain your favorite one, am I wrong? "

" You can't be more right, no matter what you will always be my favorite cook, " Lina replied joyfully, she then ordered a plate of Maafe for four people and after waiting for some minutes she finally received her food and borrowed it to Natasha's house.

When she arrived she didn't bother knocking on the door but entered directly. She found Matteo sitting in the living room while reading a book, without taking his eyes off of it, he told her that Natasha was taking a shower upstairs and he added " She also ordered me, if you came before she finished, to not let you go up ".

" And are you gonna try to stop me if intended to go up? " Lina asked provocatively. Matteo gazed at her a little while and sighed, " no I don't think I could stop you anyway, so do as you please ". She grinned, put the food on the table, she delicately took off her bag, and discreetly headed up straight to Natasha's room.

Later Jamal entered the house and found Matteo on the sofa but no one else.

" Where are the others? " he asked, but the boy did not respond to him, he just lifted his finger as to tell him to hold on. Jamal, confused, waited and a few seconds later they heard a very loud scream from upstairs followed by what is it seemed to be Natasha's voice, screaming, " What the hell are you doing here!!? Stop pulling on my towel! ", then, they heard loud and quick steps indicating that someone was running, the footsteps were followed by the loud sounds of a door being n closed and locked furiously.

Jamal stood there, even more confused, not knowing what to do.

A few minutes later the women's footsteps were heard going down the stairs and they soon came to join the guys in the living room. Natasha was red with anger while behind her Lina was smiling happily like a little girl of 8 years who had succeeded to prank someone older than her. Natasha stopped before Matteo and crossed her arms still angry, " I told you to stop her when she comes ".

" And I tried, believe me, I tried my best to stop her, but she was just too strong for me, " Matteo tried to defend himself, but without putting the slightest emotions making him not credible at all.

Natasha stared at him for a while before moved to go sitting on the other side of the room still furious. Jamal turned to Lina and found her still smiling visibly amused by her prank. He sighed, deciding that she was too hopeless for him, he moved to the kitchen and, later, came back with plates, forks, and spoons.

" Anyway, let's eat before starting to talk about why we came today, OK? ", as no one objected, he gave out the plates to everyone and opened the box which contained the food.

Natasha smelled the food smell and asked Lina, though she already knew the answer, " Saidu's Maafe? ", the latter just nodded as to say yes, and grinned while looking at her, " Okay you win, I forgive you for this time, " Natasha acknowledged before she started to fill her plate.

Matteo shyly raised his hand and asked " what is this... Maafe? "

" It is also known as groundnut stew, a typical African food, the types of menus we find at Saidu's restaurant " Jamal responded, " Try it out, I promise it is very delicious ".

" Like all what chief Saidu cooks " Natasha and Lina repeated together simultaneously.

So they took their time savoring their dinner and when felt like the mood was appropriate Lina started exposing to them her plan to win the war against the mysterious shadow's army. Once she caught the attention, she started by telling them when the army should come, of course, she didn't just give them the date. She started by the beginning, how they proceeded with Matteo's power to obtain the answers until the end.

When she finished everyone was quiet for a while as they were obviously stunned by the short time they had, then Jamal began by saying " you never told me that you knew how to hypnotize someone? "

Lina smiled proudly as she replied, " a woman never reveals all her secrets ".

" So what do you think we should do, the time we have is a bit too short, right? Do you think you will have the time to make up your plan before that? " He asked while she responded directly by affirming that she could, " however, it would be tough but we will definitely have the time to make it, let me explain it to all of you ".