Richard sat in his favorite New York cafe, his feet propped up on the table in front of him. The staff had long since given up trying to stop him from doing it, so they freely let it go. Richard was sitting near the front window, enjoying the early spring sun shining through. As he began to doze off in his chair, a familiar voice startled him awake. Turning to see who it was, he spotted SpaceMountain towering over him.
"Heyya Space!" Richard exclaimed, receiving a glare from Hoopi, who was standing behind SM. "...and Hoopi."
Hoopi shook his head and wandered to the counter to get a coffee or something. Space continued to stand, staring at Richard. Richard stared back, simply twiddling his thumbs. "Richard, you asked us to come here," Space finally said.
"I did?" replied Richard, giving SM a puzzled look. "You did, Richard," retorted SM. Richard scratched his cheek, before a light-bulb went off in his head. He swung his feet off of the table, brushing off the footprints and dirt.
"I did! Have a seat! I figured you would want to watch."
SM sat down on the other side of the table, signaling Hoopi to get him a coffee. Hoopi was on his way back to the table, and disgruntled, turned back around to the counter. "Alright, what is it that I am suppose to watch?"
"Remember how that one place across the street was giving you some trouble and you wanted me to make sure they were taken care of?" Richard said, not so subtly pointing at a small bakery across the street. SM slapped his hand down. "Ow." Richard said, shaking his hand to get rid of the stinging pain. "Right, no pointing.
"Anyway, we should be a few minutes away from the big show. So sit back, have a donut, and enjoy."
Richard leaned back in his chair, thinking about donuts. As Hoopi returned to the table with SM's coffee, Richard turned to him.
"Hoopi, why don't you get us some donuts?"
Hoopi turned to Richard. "Get your own damn donuts. I'm not your errand boy." barked Hoopi. Richard smirked at Hoopi, holding back from laughing. The sound of glass breaking across the street interrupted the banter, and the three men all took a glance out the window to catch the show.
The front window of the bakery had shattered, and thick black smoke was pouring out. After a few minutes, the flames followed the smoke, lighting the entire bottom floor of the building in orange. As Richard watched entranced by the flames, he noticed someone casually walking up to the front door of the bakery. As Richard sat confused that anyone would approach the inferno, the man opened the door and walked inside.
Richard was in complete shock as he watched throw the smoke as it appeared the man had taken a seat inside the bakery. Richard's jaw had dropped at this strange scene. Turning to SM, Richard noticed a bemused and bewildered look on his face. Turning back to the scene, they watched as the guy sat inside the blaze for a few more minutes. Finally, the man casually stood up and exited the bakery. His clothes were singed and his exposed skin was covered in soot. As the man walked away, Richard, SM, and Hoopi all looked at each other, stunned and in disbelief. Richard tried to find something to say, but couldn't think of the words. Finally, he managed to speak up.
"Did that guy just..." Richard started, before being cut off by SM. "Yep."
"And then he..." Richard started again, this time cut off by Hoopi. "Yep."
"And he somehow..." "Yep," came the reply from both Hoopi and SM.
Sitting in silence for the next few minutes, Richard was still trying to interpret what he had seen.
"Why would you walk into a building that was on fire?" |