Beowulf and the City

Beowulf and the City

            Beowulf suddenly woke to the piercing sound of his alarm clock going off.  However, today he woke up in a total different mood; he had been looking forward to this day for the past couple of months.  Today was the day that Beowulf would release his new desert in his food-hall (restaurant).  He even got the Chanel 7 News to come to his food-hall to publicize his desert even more.  Beowulf was a well known food-maker (food-maker) in the outskirts of New York City who had recently created one of the greatest deserts of all time.  He had been secretly making this desert and altering with it for the past year trying to make it perfect.

After taking a shower in record time, he snatched the recipe out of his safe and darted to his brand new Lexus sitting in his driveway.  Beowulf could hardly concentrate on the road as thoughts kept pondering his mind as to what he would call this new desert.  Only two people knew about his invention; Beowulf himself, and his assistant, Grendel.  Grendel was one of the most talented cooks besides Beowulf.  Frankly, Beowulf didn’t know why Grendel just didn’t open up his own food-hall and be a head food-maker.  However, he was happy he had such a great assistant.

While Beowulf was driving, fire trucks and ambulances kept whizzing by him.  He thought something big must have happened in the city, when suddenly Grendel called him.  As his thoughts returned to his food-hall, he happily answered to a shaky voice telling Beowulf to quickly come to the food-hall.  As he turned the last corner to his food-hall, his stomach dropped when he saw what was ahead of him.  Tens of fire trucks were stopped on the road viciously hosing down what was once his food-hall.  Stunned, Beowulf got out of his car and walked over to the sidewalk, where Grendel was sitting with his face in his hands.  Speechless, Beowulf sat down next to Grendel and stared at the roaring fire, as thousands of memories passed through his mind.

  That was his family’s food-hall that was passed down throughout the generations.  Beowulf spent his entire childhood in that food-hall with his father, learning how to cook and how to prepare different meals.  Beowulf lost his mother at age 6, leaving him to grow up only with a father.  Whenever he asked about his mother, his dad continuously told him that she just “went to sleep and never woke up”; however in his early teen years he learned that she actually suffered from a brain aneurism.  After Beowulf’s mom passed, his dad went through serious depression, almost quitting the cooking industry.  Nothing hurt Beowulf more than when he saw how sad his father was.  Beowulf could plainly remember waking up in the dead of the night to the shattering of plates and glasses.  This was a side to his dad that he has never seen before.  His dad was the kindest person he knew, who would stay up countless hours of the night comforting Beowulf whenever he was sick.

Beowulf could clearly remember the day he got the news that changed his entire life.  It was his senior year in high school, a week before graduation.  He was in Science class taking the final exams when the principal walked into the classroom, and with a hurt look on his face whispered into the teacher’s ear.  The teacher slowly looked at Beowulf, and beckoned him to go outside with the principal.  Confused as to what was happening, he quickly went outside, wanting to get back to the test quickly, but instead of the principal talking, he embraced Beowulf in a hug and with tears in his eyes told Beowulf that his father has passed away from a heart attack.  He continued to tell Beowulf that because he had no family left he would have to live in his old house, and would have to manage the food-hall.

All these memories faded when a fire man came up to him and said there was nothing left from the food-hall and the cause of the fire looked like arson.  This meant that the insurance would not cover any of the damage.  Beowulf had no money to rebuild the food-hall, so he questionably looked at Grendel as to what would happen next.  Grendel said he would be moving in with his Uncle all the way in California, and open up a small food-hall there.  And then right then Beowulf got up and never looked back, and tried to start a new life.

Five years later, Beowulf was taking night classes at a local community college, to get a degree in physical therapy.  He had pretty much started a new life.  One night he was watching TV when he saw a documentary about food-halls in California.  He kept watching, to see what his life could have been life, when suddenly Grendel’s face popped up.  For some reason, he was the star of that episode.  Beowulf was tremendously happy to see that Grendel was a great success in California, when suddenly he saw how he got famous.  Grendel had been selling a desert for the past five years that has made him a millionare, and a famous face in the world of food-makers.  Beowulf’s mood changed abruptly when he realized that Grendel was selling Beowulf’s desert.  Beowulf quickly ran to his safe and saw that his recipe was gone.  He remembered after the fire he lost the recipe, and realized that Grendel somehow got his hands on it.

Beowulf had never been more furious in his entire life.  He knew he had to do something about this, so he quickly drove to the airport and bought the next ticket out to California.  Lucky for him, there was a spot open on the next plane.  Throughout the entire flight, Beowulf kept thinking as to how much Grendel has betrayed him.  When Beowulf landed in California, he got a taxi to take him to the part of town that Grendel had a food-hall in.  He didn’t know where exactly the food-hall was, so he walked the streets looking, still pondering as to what he would do to Grendel.  Just then he saw Grendel’s Uncle, Matt, coming out of a nearby store.  Matt must have seen Beowulf first because he was already happily waving and quickly walking over to him.  When Matt got to Beowulf, he explained how he was so happy to see him.  He told Beowulf to come home with him because he had a lot of explaining to do.

When Beowulf got to Matt’s apartment, they sat down at the table and Matt suddenly started to apologize.  Beowulf was confused as to what he was apologizing for, but then he realized all that Matt knew.  Matt explained how he was the one that got Grendel to steal the recipe from him, and that Grendel was the one that caused the fire at his food-hall.  As Matt kept talking, Beowulf kept getting angrier.  He realized that it was Grendel who messed up his life, and he had to get revenge.  Matt explained the only way to get revenge was to do the same thing Grendel did to him; set fire to his prized possession.

Beowulf and Matt waited until late that night to go to the food-hall.  It was around 2 AM when they finally decided to carry out the act.  They carefully crept around the city until they got to Grendel’s food-hall.  On the window was a picture of the famous desert with Grendel’s smiling face.  This infuriated Beowulf to no extent as they started to set Grendel’s food-hall on fire.  As the last of the building burned to the ground, Beowulf felt a relief of joy pass through him.  When Grendel would come back to the food-hall, he would know that Beowulf did it and would never sell the desert again.