The next morning, Sonic was impressed by the gossip he heard over breakfast. He was munching on a biscuit that had bacon and eggs as filling while listening in on the cashier's conversation. Apparently, the man had been out drinking last night when Shadow the Hedgehog came in, sat down at the bar, paid for everyone's drinks, and proceeded to have a grand old time; getting to know people, telling jokes, singing songs, and getting completely plastered before leaving.
Sonic was amazed. This was a side of Shadow that he had never seen. Telling jokes? Singing? Drinking? Shadow seemed eager to make a name for himself amongst the citizens. Sonic turned to the cashier.
"Did he say where he was staying?"
The man shrugged. "Mr. B on Third Street said that he was staying in one of the apartments, I think."
Mr. Bernard was the owner and operator of the apartment complex that took up most of Third Street. A lot of people lived there because there was no suburban area, but there always seemed to be enough room for anyone who wanted to move in.
Sonic paid for his meal and headed over to Third Street.
Shadow had only yesterday arrived in the city and already she had a hangover. She pulled on her clothes and stumbled out the door to the elevator. The lift was empty, so she took her cell phone out of her pocket and texted a journal entry.
"Day one in Redwood Park City. Went out drinking last night. Made sixteen new contacts."
She filled in the names and numbers of her new friends.
"Going out to get a job today. Have enough money to last until Apocalypse, but might as well have something to do."
She glanced at the elevator buttons as the machine came to a stop, the door opening. A human woman and her four-or-so-year-old son entered the lift. Shadow continued texting silently.
"To recap: Looked up RPC because of regular Sonic sightings in area. Want to meet Sonic again. Not sure what I'll do if-"
Shadow looked up from her text. The little boy was tugging her tail and trying to get his mother's attention at the same time. Shadow looked down at the boy, putting her phone away.
"Hello," said Shadow, getting the boy's attention, "I'm Shadow. What's your name?"
The boy was in awe. "I'm Steven!" he piped. This caught the mother's attention. She pulled her son away, muttering something about not talking to strangers. The boy looked longingly at his new acquaintance and Shadow shrugged. Steven shrugged back, and the elevator was silent, save for Shadow's continued texting, until they reached the ground floor.
The elevator door opened and Shadow entered the main lobby, greeting Mr. Bernard and checking out for the day. Mr. B stopped Shadow as she was about to leave, though.
"You have a gentleman caller, mademoiselle," he whispered, his old-man-romantic personality shining through. He winked, pointing toward the sitting area and no doubt to the high-backed chair which faced away from them.
"Gentleman caller?" Shadow frowned. She wasn't here to date. Someone at the bar liked her? Whoop-dee-frickin'-doo. Shadow had listened to the radio enough to know that love wasn't a good thing. Sure, Redwood Park was this country's equivalent of Paris, romance-wise, what with all the adventure associated with the surrounding reserves and blahdy-blahdy-blah… Shadow shook her head and walked out the door. The bar had been filled with humans, anyway- what kind of perverted weirdo would want to go out with a hedgehog?
"Um, Sonic," called Mr. Bernard, "Shadow just left. Sonic?"
Sonic woke up from his doze in the high-backed chair in the apartment complex lobby and hurried out the door, just barely sleepy enough to miss the black hedgehog turning the corner.
Sonic rushed around, asking anyone and everyone if they'd seen Shadow walk by. He thought he had found a trail, for a moment, but it stopped at the post office. Sonic's mind stalled again as he considered Shadow needing stamps for some reason, and bought a newspaper, reading it as he walked up the street, not realizing that, as he obscured both his vision and his visage, that a hedgehog farther up the street was doing the exact same thing; only reading the classified ads, rather than the sports section. The other hedgehog turned the corner and sat down on a bench as Sonic continued across the street and up the next block, stopping at his favorite diner and entering the eatery.
Shadow decided that there wasn't anything really interesting in the job world right now and settled on a full-time job as a waitress at a diner up the street. The help-wanted sign was still in the window as Shadow walked in.
Sonic was engrossed in his newspaper-reading when an oddly familiar voice caught his ear.
"Hello, I heard you had an opening for a waitress?"
Sonic spaced out for a moment, trying to recognize the voice as the cashier bade the voice-haver join him in the back office to discuss it with the manager. Sonic's mind was running especially slow this morning; by the time his common sense reminded him that he could match a name to a face by just looking up, the voice-haver was gone. Sonic scratched his head. She had a lovely voice, whoever she was.
"Must be a singer," he mused, flipping back through the newspaper.