The Riding Ring Grand Opening
"Oh! So sorry, that was my stomach," Vito Junior said sheepishly. "I guess I'm hungry."
Carmen suddenly remembered the flyer she had picked up off the ground while she and her father were on their way to the hardware store earlier that afternoon.
"Why don't we go here for dinner?" Carmen suggested.
The flyer read: Riding Ring grand opening, meals free for the first fifty customers.
"Is this the establishment that Lisa's friend, Stevie Lake converted the downstairs of that old laundromat with her husband, Phil Marsten after they bought the entire old building?" Vito Junior asked Carmen.
"The very same," Carmen answered her father. "the Lake-Marsten family converted the upstairs of the old laundromat into the family living quarters."
Vito Junior's stomach growled again, "Whatever they serve sounds by far better than our usual rice porridge! I'm so hungry I could eat one of our circus bears!" he laughed.
Carmen had to laugh too, "Nobody can be that hungry!" she observed.
Over at the Riding Ring, Stevie came downstairs from putting hers and Phil's four-month-old daughter, Sara Jane Lake-Marsten to bed up in the living quarters.
Phil was busy slinging beef patties onto hamburger buns.
When the restaurant's front door opened and the bell above the door rang.
"Welcome to the riding ring!" Stevie exclaimed when Carmen and Vito Junior walked into thr restaurant.
EJ and his parents, Vivian Connors and Alexander Connors were sitting at a table that was nearby opened window waiting for their food.
"Hey, Carmen!" EJ exclaimed.
"There's EJ," Carmen said. "I'm going to chat with him."
After the Connors family received their order and ate their food, they left the Riding Ring establishment.
Vito Junior came over with the order for himself and Carmen.
Carmen's father got her a cheeseburger with mustard, ketchup, and pickles, a small salad from the salad bar on the side, and a strawberry kiwi smoothie to drink.
For himself, Vito Junior got a cod sandwich, a small salad, and an ice cold spring water to drink.
After Carmen and Vito Junior ate their food, they too left the Riding Ring establishment.
A few days later, Carmen was preparing for her fifth trial.