Chapter 16 - 16

Adam was exhausted, he was also dirty and his face was partly covered in that woman's blood. He needed a bath, a hot meal, and a drink. So there really was only one place he could possibly be going. When he got in, despite the time of night, Mandy was still in, though she seemed to be cleaning up, despite the handful of bar-goers still drinking happily at the back. "Well." Mady said with a bit of surprise and a lot of sass. "And here I thought you kicked the bucket." She chuckled before standing up from the table she was cleaning. "Nope, though things did get hairy for a bit." Adam said as he slowly walked over to the table and sat down. "I bet, I told you yesterday Scaving is dangerous work, but you went ahead and did it anyway, so can't say anything but it's on you." She shrugged. "Yes, but I promise it was worth it." He grinned and then held up two of the 100 cap vouchers. "Heard You accept these and I am in dire need of a shower." She looks at the vouchers and then sighs. "I'll say you are." She returned. Adam looked at her confused for a moment and then at the vouchers and then back at her. "What's wrong? Do you not accept these? Chuck told me these are good in town." Adam said, suddenly worried, he had just traded everything for these slips of paper. If they were worthless… "No no no no." Mandy said quickly, cutting Adam's thoughts off at the pass. "I accept them, it's just…" She then sighed and sat down at the table with Adam. "Look, Chuck means well and all but honestly, between you and me, I don't see the need for them." She shrugged and then leaned back in the chair. "Caps work fine and I don't see a need to reinvent the wheel. My mother used caps, her mother used caps, her before her mother used caps, and, hell, if her mother before even her was not living in a hole I bet she was using caps too." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a cap, A Nuka Cola branded bottle cap. "Chuck visited Midway and they got their own way of doing things, he said they used paper slips as currency over there, I don't know why, nor do I care, honestly, I wouldn't accept their paper here. But Chuck had some bright-eyed idea about us doing the same, practically begged me and the Doc to adopt them…" She paused and then pulled out a cigarette pack from her back pocket of her pants, opened it, and inside was not cigarettes but little sticks of candy, they looked like lollipops but were in the general shape of a thin rolled candy. "He's a small town merchant with big town ideas." She chuckled as she popped one of the candy sticks in her mouth and began sucking on it. "Now don't get me wrong, they are handy, easier to hand over a slip than count out caps every time, no lie there. But It's never sat right with me. It is what it is." She said, leaning in again. "So, you want to rent a room again?" She said, looking at the vouchers still in Adam's hand. "Yes uh…" Adam said, caught off guard by the sudden realization that the vouchers were not nearly as beloved as Chuck had led him to believe. "I'd like to rent a room for 2 nights for now please." She nodded as she sucked on her candy roll. "Fine by me, your room's still available as it was when you left this morning, did the cleaning though, so it's all yours if you want it." She said leaning back in the chair again, probably enjoying the momentary break from cleaning tables to chat. "That works for me." Adam said, as he slipped a 100 cap voucher to her across the table. She took it and then slipped it into her pocket, pulling out her key ring a moment later to take off the key Adam had returned yesterday before he left and put it in front of him again. "Enjoy your room." She said as she began to stand up to finish cleaning before Adam spoke up again. "Also, I was wondering If you still had food? A drink too would be nice." Adam said, trying to get himself something to fill his stomach before he turned in for the night. She stopped mid standing up and then turned to look at him. "Sure, I can fire up the stove if you need. What are you in the mood for?" She smiled. Adam came out of his room the next morning cleaned and well rested. His head still hurt a little bit but nothing more than a light sore spot where he was hit, nothing he would even notice without touching it. He still was unsure about his plans for the day, but right now he was hungry and could really use a coffee. Luckily, or unluckily, depending how you look at it, the bored employee was standing behind the counter again when he woke up. Adam strode over and took a seat at the bar. "What are you serving?" he asked the employee who seemed to be lethargically looking out the slightly opened front door into the bright sunny day he was probably wishing he was enjoying instead of sitting inside an inn serving customers all day. Or worse, not serving customers. He turned to look at Adam slowly. "We got a vegetable medley, a bone broth, or more radrat roast." Truth be told, Adam wanted a roast the most, it wasn't very… breakfasty but he never cared much the idea of breakfast foods to begin with, he would often have leftover salisbury steak for breakfast if he could swing it in the morning, but he would eat pretty anything that sounded good at the time, so some days that meant more traditional meals like a bowl of cereal like Sugar Bombs. But despite his heart calling out for the roast it was a… rat… and something called a radrat couldn't be that sanitary, even if he trusted Mandy. He would need to get rid of his prewar sensibilities someday, but that day wasn't today. "I'll have the vegetable medley." He said as he rooted into his pocket and pulled out his cap bag. "Oh can I also have some coffee too?" "11 caps." The man returned with a monotone. Adam was quick to dump out some caps from his bag and begin counting them out. Last night, when he asked Mandy for some food, she had charged him 12 caps for a meal and drink to go with it, proper beer this time. But as he lacked the caps she took his 50 cap voucher and gave him change. Leaving him with 38 loose caps, soon to be 27. He handed over the caps, placing them on the farside of the counter and then put his bag back into his pocket, next to the other vouchers he was keeping on himself at all times. The man slowly got up from his slouched position and then sauntered over to the caps, picked them up, and then stored them in the cash register before getting to work getting the coffee and a plate of food for Adam. "My name Is Adam, by the way." He said while the man worked the coffee machine with his back turned to Adam. "I know." He responded curtly without even turning around. There was a long few seconds of silence while the guy maybe ignored Adam. He was about to either call out to him again or give up before the man finally spoke. "Eric." He returned softly. Perhaps embarrassed or something? But Adam caught it. "Well, nice to meet you Eric." He said with a chipper tone, trying to offset the lethargic energy that Eric was letting off. "I'm sure you know I'm new in town. I'm still picking up all the pieces, but I'll be in town for at least a few days so figured it couldn't hurt to get to know you, since you seem to be Mandy's morning staff." Adam said, extending an olive branch. "If you aren't planning to stay, then I don't see why we should bother." He said callously but not maliciously as he placed a hot cup of coffee in front of Adam. "Wish I could leave." He said softly, clearly to himself as he turned to walk to the back to get the medley ready. Adam however, was feeling chatty today, maybe it was because yesterday he had a brush with death but today he was still coming down off his high, even after a night's rest. Or maybe he was just very curious about this guy who seemed so disinterested in everything. Regardless, he pushed forward. "Why can't you leave then?" Adam asked casually as he sipped at the coffee which was just the perfect way to start the day. It wasn't the best coffee he'd ever had, but he wasn't too picky, so he was glad to have the hot drink in his hands. "Where would I go?" He said with a somber and still lethargic tone as he walked over to the stone near the door to the back. "Midway?" Adam asked casually, mostly just probing. "You are crazy." Eric returned, while he turned on the stove and got the vegetables ready. "Road's dangerous enough as it is before those weirdos showed up. I ain't making it all the way there by myself." He said as he started to cook properly. "Besides I go all the way there to do what? Do the same thing there that I am here? Sis owns the Inn, at least here I know I got employment, there I could just end up a gopher for The Guild." He paused a bit to focus on cooking. "Your sister? You mean Mandy's your sister?" Adam asked, not expecting that. Eric's back was to Adam and all he saw was his shoulders slump a bit but he could swear the air emanating off Eric read as 'are you fucking stupid?' But all Eric said after a few moments was: "Yes." The air remained silent for a moment before Adam picked back up. "So this Inn is family owned then?" "Yes." Eric responded again curtly. He then sighed and continued. "The place was owned by our parents before they passed, Sis was the older one so she inherited it, I just live here." He said with an indifferent shrug. "Why not try another profession then?" Adam offered, he may be getting a bit too deep into this guy's personal life, but at this point he was mostly just making conversation, it getting deep would probably be on Eric no? "Because my parents only taught me how to run an Inn, not how to farm, or how to blacksmith, or how to adventure outside these walls. Just how to cook and clean." He said with a bit of a disgruntled tone. "Of course, now they have a schoolhouse for the kids, but I'm not a kid anymore, so I can't learn new skills." "Well..." Adam began before taking a sip of his coffee again and then setting it down. "I used to think like that too, used to be a soldier, after I got out I struggled to find work. But I did, and became pretty damn good at it too." Adam took another quick sip of his coffee and then continued. "Just can't give up, if you keep looking you'll find work you enjoy." It wasn't empty platitudes, truthfully whether he found work he enjoyed or not depended heavily on him, but it wasn't impossible, maybe he just hadn't found his calling. Or maybe, with time, he would come to enjoy the Inn work. It wasn't for Adam to say, but the best advice he could give him at the moment was that there are other options. Eric turned around to look at Adam as he held the plated food, a rather nice display of mixed veggies to be honest, with a look of suspicion and defeat, though with a shimmer of hope. Eric just mumbles and then places the plate down in front of Adam. "I got work to do. Enjoy your food." Eric said as he seemed to be done with the conversation now and just walked off to elsewhere in the restaurant part of the Inn to do something else. Somewhere he couldn't be bothered. Adam decided to leave him alone, it wasn't his place to pry or push. After all, he just started talking to him today. So he ate his food in silence. Though there was a soft jazzy tune playing through the restaurant area that he just began to notice now that he was left to his own thoughts. The Jukebox was on and playing a tune from a selected album. Seemed his efforts were worth it.