Zombie Pizza Palace

We were hungry for more than brains as Annalisa and I set on our quest to find nourishment. It was dark and cold and as the wind twisted through the holes in our clothing we found ourselves tripping over the rags that were our jeans. We were dressed our best for the yearly zombie parade of 2012

Annalisa and I had a wonderful time at the parade mingling with all of the other brain eaters but the fun had died down and nothing was open. Downtown Davenport was a Ghost town on this chilling pre-pandemic night.

With realistic zombie swagger we stumbled slowly through the streets in search of food and

came to the Holy Grail of glowing signs: Antonella’s Pizzeria. Famished, we ran to the door and stretched our arms for it’s handle just as the solo waitress that night was flipping the open sign to close. She screamed as we reached for the handle and being surprised by her we screamed as well.

We all stopped and laughed at the movie-like scene and she said, “Are you guys hungry?”. We nodded earnestly and she kindly let us in.

“You girls are real lucky you came when you did; I was just about to close up.”

“We can take it to go.” Annalisa offered,

“Yes, of course! We’re just lucky you let us in at all!” I agreed.

“Nonsense! You may be able to give someone a fright at first, but I am not having two young girls slowed down by a large pizza walking through these dark streets alone.” the waitress decided.

“Um...We’re just going to have a slice of pizza each please, we don’t have that big of an allowance.”

“Okay, okay, and two cokes?”

“Just water please.” I added.

The waitress sat us down at a table and left us to ourselves. We shot paper straws at each other and licked palms of parmesan, we reminisced about the parade and discussed news about our upcoming children’s play. Annalisa drew my portrait on a napkin and by the time she was done so was our pizza.

The kind waitress, that we immaturely never asked the name of, brought over a large cheese pizza and two cokes and set it down in front of us. At first we didn’t eat it, we just stared down at glistening cheese and sparkling tomato sauce. We gulped. “Well?...What’s wrong with it?”

“Nothings wrong with it, it’s just like I said earlier ma’am, we don’t have the money for it.”

“Oh I know that darlin’. Now eat up, this one is on us.”

“Really?!” we sang in unison.

“Really. Just promise to bring your parents back to order more pizzas. And pick up those straw papers.”

Annalisa was the first to grab a slice. As she lifted it the cheese didn’t break, even when she stood up and it looked like a cartoon when she bit into it and it stretched as she pulled away. Our instincts smelling pizza sauce was like a shark smelling blood and we dove greedily into the grease and cheese. Tomato sauce and chunks of cheese ran down our chins like brains and completed our costumes. We consumed half of the pizza and all of our cokes and slumped back into the cozy booths with stomachs swollen and pizza sauce still on our chins. The kind waitress came with two boxes for the leftovers and refills on our cokes. We said thank you and left with warm hearts and full bellies.

Walking homewards we finished our pizza and cokes and couldn’t stop talking about our wonderful night. We kept our promise until we left for college and went once a month with our parents back to that same local restaurant for a pizza at full charge.