Sally, Part 14

1.  Babies cry, letting you know what they want.  Really, it's a biological miracle.
2.   My wife played Portal 2 with me.  It's just fun to play with her.
3.  I'm grateful that we don't have more car accidents.  Considering how many people drive, we really should

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You'll need to read Part 13 for this post to make much sense.

Mattias's words of praise were a cold drink after crossing a desert.  The Captain, though he often ate Stacey's cooking, never gave a word of praise.  What Mattias said flooded into Stacey and made him smile.  "Thank you sir."

It also gave Stacey a secret.  He knew that Mattias didn't know much about cooking.  No spice, or assortment of spices, could possibly remove the taste of Andrill from potatoes.  Potatoes are like sponges, they soak up every flavor around them.  The trick to removing Andrill from them was not in the cooking, but in the sack they were carried in.  Stacey's mother, before she died, taught Stacey how to make a sack, and what to make it out of, that cleaned produce in such a way that it pulled out contaminants, like Andrill in general.  The flavor of Andrill was out of those potatoes a few hours after Stacey was on the boat.  It still made him happy though, because potatoes, like sponges, really have no flavor all by themselves.  So, for Mattias to have said anything, Stacey did have his spices right.  His mashed potatoes were good.  Come out of Andrill and still deserve praise good.

Mattias walked away and sat with some of the crew to eat his meal.  Stacey looked across the ship and saw the crew sitting and laughing together, each holding a plate of mashed potatoes and pork.  This was what he wanted with his inn.  He wanted his food to bring people together, and to give them an atmosphere where they could put their differences aside and just enjoy an evening.

Of course, thinking of his inn made him think of Sally.  Sure, he wouldn't know about Stacey's food until he was much older, but that wasn't what concerned Stacey.  A father may want to share his talent with his son, but that isn't what he cares the most about.  Stacey didn't want his legacy to be food, but goodness.  He didn't care about teaching Sally how to make a great meal, but teaching Sally how to be a great friend.  Stacey had seen so much evil in the world, that his greatest dream was to help at least one more person fight against selfishness and pride.  He wanted Sally to be a decent person, and as he looked across the boat, he really only saw a little boy standing in an ally way of Andrill, dirty and cold, trying to scrape by.  And in that moment, Stacey realized that there was little chance of Sally being a decent person.  He had seen the poor of Andrill and noted that constant need often leads to unsavory action.  How far would one go to fill his belly?  Would he steal to do it?  Would he kill?  Would Sally kill?