Chapter Nineteen

After a few minutes Radley leaned back, studying his list of ideas.

"So there's two kinds of restaurants we could do," he mused. "One would be something more casual like Village Inn. Or we could do a more fancy one like Applebee's. I was thinking more casual, but what do you guys think?"

Yusei shrugged. "I'm not much for fancy things."

Kalin grunted. "A fancier one would still have alcohol, wouldn't it?"

Radley gave him a Look. "I wouldn't be able to legally serve you until your birthday!"

Kalin shrugged, still not agreeing with the legal drinking age but not wanting to get Radley in trouble either. "I don't like fancy much either, but I like alcohol."

Radley shook his head. "I know, I know."

Yusei finally looked a bit amused. But he just kept eating and didn't weigh in on the discussion.

Finally Radley leaned back, studying his list. "I'll think about it some more," he said. "Maybe I'll run that poll we were talking about to see which kind of restaurant the town would most like to see."

Kalin nodded. "That's a good idea."

When the meal was done, Radley walked through the entirety of the building, inspecting everything as he further pondered to himself. He also went into the kitchen, the pantry, and the cellar, examining their stock of all food and beverages. Kalin and Yusei trailed along with him.

By the end, Radley still looked indecisive. "I'll put out that poll tomorrow and see that every household gets one," he said. "I wanna make sure I'm doing what the town will like the most."

"And what will bring the most money," Kalin deadpanned.

Radley smirked. "That's only natural and logical."

Yusei smiled. "I'd better go see what Jack and Crow have gotten into," he said. "It's been really nice sharing dinner with both of you."

Kalin smiled too. "It has. I hope we can do it more often."

"Me too," Yusei said. "I'll see if I can get out here more."

"Will we see you again before you go back to the City?" Kalin asked.

"Of course," Yusei promised. "We won't leave without saying Goodbye."

"We'll hold you to that," Radley said with a wink. "Actually, I'd like to check on what's going on at the diner as well. We might as well go over together and you can see if Crow and Jack are still there."

"Sure," Yusei said.

They all rode over, parking at the diner within a few minutes. It was still crowded, but had thankfully thinned out a bit by now. As they went inside, none of them were too surprised to find a mini concert going on. Scotch had promised one, after all. But Kalin was slightly surprised to hear Scotch launch into a serious song, In Dreams, from The Lord of the Rings.

Radley smiled, fully wrapped up in the song and in hearing Scotch sing it. Scotch soon caught his eye and grinned. When the song was over, Scotch bounded off the stage and over to them. "I waited to sing that until you guys came!" he said.

"It was great, Scotch," Radley said. "I love hearing you do those songs."

"Wouldn't it be epically amazing if The Lord of the Rings was real?!" Scotch exclaimed. "I mean, Tolkien said those things in the books about how he'd just found The Red Book or something and he was just publishing it. It'd be so cool if it was true!"

Radley chuckled. "I'm not sure how I'd reconcile the Earth having existed for that long with what I was taught growing up, but it is an interesting, if staggering, thought."

Kalin grunted. "It seemed like the people there were always at war about something or another," he said. ". . . Which doesn't sound much different from here." He grimaced.

Radley gave a wan smile. "Yeah."

"I really don't get why Tolkien said the Hobbits eventually died out or something, though," Scotch scowled.

"Maybe just to explain why there aren't any now?" Radley mused. "I don't like that either. I always wanted to think that they hung on and they were just really secretive now. I mean, Aragorn banned Men from even entering the Shire in the books, I guess because of Saruman taking the place over and starting to wreck it, so it seems pretty possible for them to kind of fade out of people's knowledge while still existing."

Scotch eagerly nodded. "Yeah! Like how most people don't believe in things like fairies but maybe they're real!"

Kalin noted that Yusei had quietly slipped off during this discussion to look for Crow and Jack. Yusei, he doubted, had ever really been exposed to Tolkien's works. He wasn't even sure Yusei would be interested in fantasy worlds without technology. He might appreciate The Lord of the Rings if he actually realized how much it championed friendship, however. Kalin hadn't ever thought he himself would be that interested in it, but after Radley had shown him what it was really like, he had become fairly invested in it.

"I wish it was real and we could actually meet the characters we love!" Scotch said.

"I sure wouldn't wanna be caught up in the War of the Ring, though," Radley said.

"Well . . . maybe after it ends but before Frodo goes away," Scotch said. "Or before any of it happens! Then we could meet a happy Frodo."

"Even if that was possible, could you refrain from telling him things about the future?" Kalin grunted, even as he was surprised at himself for being involved in such a hypothetical discussion about the impossible. "You might accidentally blurt something."

". . . That would be bad," Scotch winced. "I wouldn't do that!"

Radley chuckled fondly. "I'm sure you wouldn't."

At that moment Yusei came back over to them with Crow and Jack.

"You guys have a real great place here," Crow said.

"Thank you. We certainly feel that way," Radley smiled.

Jack gave a curt nod. "I've appreciated my meals here."

"We all have," Crow assured Radley. "So is there going to be an ending ceremony for the festival or something?"

"There should be," Radley agreed. "At least thanking everyone for coming from up on the bandstand."

"Yeah! And we can have bigger ceremonies for future festivals!" Scotch said. "There'll be a lot more!"

"With you in charge of putting them together?" Kalin grunted.

"I've got lots of ideas!" Scotch said.

Radley smiled. "That's great, Scotch. Your festivals will put us on the map as a place for family-friendly fun."

"That's been your dream for so long, Radley," Scotch said. "I'm really glad I can help it come true!"

"Me too," Radley said fondly.

The groups lingered a bit longer and took one last look at the town square while the booths were still open. The vendors, happy after a successful couple of days selling their wares, greeted them all with cheerfulness.

"My favorites are the toy booths," Scotch grinned. "I made sure we found some people selling Pokemon and Mario and Sonic stuff!"

"We screened everybody to make sure we only got people selling real good-looking stuff and not obvious sub-par bootlegs," Radley said.

"Of course, Scotch has bought several things from them," Kalin remarked.

"I wanted in on the fun too!" Scotch said.

"And you deserve it, Scotch," Radley smiled.

"I found a huge Espeon!" Scotch gushed. "She was only fifty bucks!"

Yusei looked around. With the festival about to wrap up, people were milling around in droves to get the last possible deals. Most of the booths were quite active.

"Jack even found some cool cards," Crow said. "Didn't you, Jack?"

Jack nodded. "Yes, I did. You don't have a bad selection here."

"Why, thank you," Radley said. "We worked hard to make sure everything was satisfactory."

"And the next festival can be even bigger!" Scotch gestured.

"What's the next one going to be?" Crow wondered.

"Maybe Harvest and Halloween?!" Scotch looked hopefully to Radley, who chuckled.

"I know that would really be a dream come true for you, Scotch," he said. "Sure. Go wild."

"Yes!" Scotch exclaimed, and danced off to make plans.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to tell Scotch to 'go wild' about Halloween?" Kalin grunted.

Radley laughed. "Scotch is good about having different spookiness levels. There'll be a mild, more friendly zone for the kiddies . . . and Biff. And even though Scotch loves to get creepy, he doesn't really do the gross-out gory stuff, so I think we'll be fine."

"Cool. Just let us know when and we'll come," Crow said with a thumbs-up.

"Scotch may have the dates all picked out by morning," Radley chuckled.

"Or in an hour," Kalin deadpanned, not sure he was kidding.

"I think Scotch will enjoy the rest of this festival before he really sits down to seriously think about the next one," Radley said.

It wasn't long and Scotch soon appeared at one of the Pokemon booths, petting a large Mew plush.

". . . You're probably right," Kalin conceded.

"How does he have room for everything?" Jack grunted.

"Oh, he makes room," Radley said.

Soon Scotch bought the Mew plush and carried it out like the treasured prize it was for him.

"And no one's surprised," Crow commented.

They also weren't surprised to see West and Nico run over to them holding some treasures of their own.

"Kalin! Yusei! Everything's been so great!" West beamed.

"It has," Yusei agreed with a smile. "Scotch put everything together really well."

"Everyone did," Nico smiled.

Radley nodded. "This is the first time the whole town's been able to collaborate on something like this. I think we're all happy and proud of the results. As we should be." He smiled.

"Is your father here?" Kalin asked the kids. He remembered seeing Jordan the day before, but he wasn't sure if the man was well enough to be around for very long yet.

"He's back at the house," Nico said. "He told us to come enjoy what was left of the festival."

West nodded. "We're bringing him special souvenirs!" He held up a ring that looked similar to the pendant Jordan were. Nico had a hat.

"You're both very thoughtful," Radley said. "He'll love your gifts."

Nico beamed. "Thank you."

"I hope we can have fun like this all the time!" West exclaimed.

"It might get boring if it was all the time," Crow remarked.

"Well . . . half the time?" West grinned.

"I hope our town will always be peaceful and safe and that this will be the first of many festivals," Radley said. "And we're planning that there will be plenty to do even when festivals aren't going on."

"I can hardly wait!" West declared.

Kalin finally gave a fond smile. It was nice to see the kids happy, just as they should be.

"It sounds like you guys are all set," Crow said with a thumbs-up.

"Yeah, thanks to Kalin and Radley and everyone!" West said. "You guys too!"

"I'm glad we could do our part," Crow said.

"You did," Nico smiled. "Now we'd better finish up here and get home."

"Yes, you shouldn't be out too late," Radley said. "Although at least now it's safe if you are."

West beamed. "Yeah!"

They skipped off, heading for one more booth.

"So what do they do for school?" Crow curiously wondered.

"We have a school," Radley said. "Although it's very small and not dissimilar to the Old West schools where all the kids shared a classroom no matter their actual grade. Hopefully now that it will be safe for kids to live here, more families will start moving in and we can make a more standard, modern school."

"Cool," Crow said. "You guys really seem to be planning every angle out."

"They're plans Radley's had for a long time but couldn't act on with Malcolm here," Kalin said. "He's a good leader. I'm still mostly an enforcer."

Radley draped an arm around Kalin's shoulders. "Which is important too. And you are a leader in that field."

"He always has been," Yusei agreed with a smile.

They lingered as the festival wound down and the last items were sold. Scotch acquired a couple more, not knowing if he would see these booths back again for the next festival and knowing that in any case, that was some months away.

"You've really got a haul," Crow commented. Scotch was holding Pikachu and Eevee keychains and small Umbreon and Espeon plushies in addition to the huge Mew.

"Yes!" Scotch grinned.

"Didn't you get a big one of that yesterday?" Kalin pointed at the Espeon.

"Yeah, but I wanted the little one to be with Umbreon," Scotch said. "They're usually together! I'll be looking for a big Umbreon to go with the big Espeon too!"

"You're probably that booth's favorite customer," Jack remarked.

"I've already invited them to the Halloween festival!" Scotch said.

"Have you already picked a date for that?" Jack said in disbelief.

"I have several in mind!" Scotch said. "Since it's Harvest too, I'm thinking a September date. And I'll make a haunted house to be open all through the spooky season!"

Radley chuckled. "Well, I know you'll have fun with that. Will you use an existing building?"

"Probably! There's still a lot of vacant ones to choose from that were owned by Malcolm!" Scotch said. "It'll be a huge moneymaker! You'll see! Maybe I'll even keep it open year-round!" He looked starry-eyed at this. "I always wondered why nobody does that. People like spooky things all the time, not just for Halloween!"

"I think there are some places that will reopen throughout the year on certain dates," Radley mused, "such as any Friday the 13ths. But you're right that aside from theme park dark rides, it doesn't seem like there are any other year-round haunted houses."

Scotch nodded enthusiastically. "Once it gets going and the word gets out, people will come from the City to see it!"

"Hmm. You know, you're probably right," Radley said.

"I'm going to look for the perfect building tomorrow!" Scotch declared.

"Did you have any you were especially planning to do something with?" Kalin asked Radley.

"My big thing is I want to make a department store," Radley said. "We'd better check out the buildings with Scotch and see if any would be good for that."

"Are they big enough?" Crow wondered.

"If not, I'll have to remodel. Or even tear down and start fresh," Radley said. "And maybe we should do that anyway. I don't trust Malcolm not to have skimped on building materials if his men put up any of those places."

"So none of those places were hit when Lawton blew stuff up?" Crow asked.

"Most weren't," Radley said in annoyance. "But I'm honestly surprised he spared them, since he didn't care about his brother."

Kalin looked to the vendors' booths. "It looks like they're all preparing to leave now," he noted. They were packing up their remaining wares and shutting down the cash registers.

Radley smiled. "Let's get on the bandstand and thank everyone for coming," he suggested. "Then we'll go around and thank the vendors individually as well. They helped make the festival a success."

"That's a cool idea," Crow said. "After you do the bandstand thing, I think we'll be heading to the hotel now."

"Thank you for coming too," Radley smiled. "All of you."

Kalin nodded. "It wouldn't have been right without you."

"We were glad to come," Yusei smiled back. "We'll see you tomorrow."

Kalin smiled too. "We will."

xxxx

The festival had been enjoyable and satisfying, but Kalin had to admit he was glad to get home. Socializing was still not his favorite thing to do and going around thanking so many people had wore him out.

Radley, on the other hand, seemed invigorated by it, which wasn't really a surprise since he loved to socialize. Kalin had to smirk a bit in amusement, which swiftly turned to a touched smile. They were so different, yet they got along so well.

"Oh . . . that was fun," Radley said as he hung his keys on the hook. "It was nice when we held town celebrations before, but there was always that fear of Malcolm's men spoiling it. This was the first time we could really feel free."

"It's probably also the first time you've had vendors, isn't it?" Kalin asked.

"Pretty much, since Malcolm locked the town down shortly after taking over part of it," Radley sighed. "He got control of telecommunications."

"That must have been horrible," Kalin frowned.

"Yeah. Everything was monitored—every phone call, every text message, every email. . . ." Radley shook his head. "But I don't wanna think about that tonight." He smiled. "I just want to think about how great things are now and how fun the festival was."

"It was a good festival," Kalin agreed. "I'm glad it turned out so well."

"Pastor Green asked me if we'd consider coming to church tomorrow," Radley said.

Kalin didn't look surprised. "I'm willing," he said. "I've been much more open to religion since God brought you back."

Radley smiled. "I feel the same. I opted not to continue the festival through Sunday partially for Pastor Green's sake, since I knew he wouldn't like that, but also because of wanting to honor God. I've had to rethink a lot of things my family got me to believe that I'm no longer sure are true. I know now it's not true that God doesn't care about me. He's made it clear He does. That's . . . a completely new world to me."

"It would be," Kalin agreed. "Meanwhile, I was told God did care, but I couldn't believe it. After everything I did, I believed it even less. How could anyone, even God, care about me with all my sins? But . . . He must care." He sounded awed as he said this. "He spared my life and He brought me you."

"We've both learned a lot," Radley said. "And we've been given so much. We've been trying to put it to good use restoring the town, and I think we've done well." He smiled.

"We have," Kalin smiled back.

"I'm gonna shower and head to bed," Radley said. "We should try to get a good sleep after such an eventful day."

Kalin nodded. "I don't know what time Yusei wants to head back to the City, but it'll probably be early. There's not much time now until the WRGP."

"Yeah. . . ." Radley gave him a searching look. "Are you really okay with not entering it?"

"I'm not ready and I've accepted that," Kalin said. "Anyway, I think we've done a good job promoting the town with our festival. That should sustain it until I am ready. And I believe sometime I will be."

Radley smiled. "I know you will be."

"You're not too disappointed, are you?" Kalin asked.

"I think we could both use more time before something as prestigious as a tournament," Radley said.

Kalin blinked in a bit of surprise. "You? You seem so much more ready than me."

"I'm better than I was, definitely," Radley said. "But I'm still wondering if I'll be afraid or intimidated in such a large-scale event."

"I'm sure you'll do fine," Kalin said. "But I understand your concerns."

"Yeah." Radley sighed. "Losing to Lawton when absolutely everything was on the line really shook me up. Sure, I might have got so I can duel okay in test runs when nothing's at stake, and I know I did well against that biker creep, but to be in an arena with everybody watching me . . . that might remind me too much of that horrible experience with Lawton and I'll freeze up."

Kalin sighed too. "I might freeze too," he admitted. "I don't really think I will after coming through the duel with the biker alright, but I might surprise myself."

"Or maybe we'll both be surprised in good ways," Radley mused. "Maybe we'll both do well and will lead Satisfaction Town to a grand victory."

"I hope so," Kalin said.

"Maybe we should practice by having people watch our Turbo Duels?" Radley suggested.

"That's probably the next step," Kalin agreed.

"We could start with the Bunch and gradually move up to some of the townspeople," Radley said.

"Of course, no matter how much we practice, it's still not the same as actual tournament conditions," Kalin said.

"I know," Radley said. "Things could always end up different there. But I'd like to try anyway."

"I would too," Kalin agreed. "Let's try it this coming week."

". . . Oh, Scotch said he was going to put up a poll on the town website to see how people feel about the candidates for mayor and sheriff now that we've had the festival," Radley remembered with a chuckle.

"Do you think anyone would have voted already?" Kalin grunted.

"Let's find out, shall we?" Radley smirked and opened the website on his phone. "Well, what do you know." He held it out for Kalin to see.

Kalin stared at it. There were already quite a few votes, and most votes were for him and Radley.

"It seems we are very popular," Radley said, pleased.

"It's not that I didn't think we'd get votes, especially when Bettina is the only other choice," Kalin said. "But I wasn't expecting so many people to hop on the town's website already."

"Hmm, maybe a lot of them wanted to leave comments in the guestbook about the festival," Radley decided. He opened that page and did indeed find some. "We definitely had a hit here."

"I wonder what people will think of Scotch's Harvest and Halloween festival," Kalin said.

"Oh, I'm sure they'll love that too," Radley said. He glanced at the clock. "And now we'd really better get going for bed."

". . . Yeah. We'd better," Kalin said, staring at the late time.

Radley smiled as he started to turn away. "It's fun, though, isn't it? Just talking?"

"It is," Kalin agreed. "I never thought it would be, but we always seem to have more to say."

He could feel Radley's happiness in the air, as well as seeing it. "I was pretty sure we would, if we could just get started," he said with a wink.

Kalin smiled too. "And of course you were right."

Radley headed down the hall, still cheerful. Kalin watched him, again wondering how he deserved such happiness after all he had done.