The New Lucky restaurant
Yolanda was unimpressed by the decor of the restaurant; she was expecting it to be dark and gothic in tone. Instead, stark lighting, made more garish by the night, greeted her as she surveyed the small eatery with its bench-style tables and the large ordering counter at the back. It looked more like a quick-service restaurant from a 1980s-era mall. Noticing the coffins, Yolanda weaved her way to the nearest one. Adorned with flowers, the coffin sat inside a white iron fencing area.
“You’re getting a kick out of this, huh?” Her friend, Betty, said. She left Yolanda where she was and approached the ordering counter.
When Yolanda first read about the New Lucky restaurant, she had come across a short article about it during her Indian trip planning; her curiosity led her to other articles. She had to strike a deal with Betty in order to accommodate this into the trip since Betty wasn’t into oddities as Yolanda was. By chance, the New Lucky restaurant was having a special one-night-only event at the restaurant during their trip.
“We better grab some seats; the waiter said that they’re about to start,” Betty said as she began to walk toward a nearby table. “I already ordered us something,” Betty said.
Yolanda sat across from her. “How did you know—” Yolanda began to ask when the lighting began to dim.
Betty glanced at Yolanda. “I know what you like and what you don’t like. You’re a picker eater.” She said.
Yolanda stuck her tongue out at her. She didn’t like it when Betty was right. Having been sorority sisters in college, there was nothing that they didn’t know about each other. They were known as Hump and Bump in college between their clique of friends. Betty having the lusty desires of a pre-teen, and Yolanda having her fetish for the macabre.
A waiter appeared from the gloom with two plates and two bottles of water: curry with rice and samosas. He pulled two wrapped bunches of utensils from his back pocket and slipped them onto the table for them; he silently drifted back into the gloom. Besides Yolanda and Betty, the New Lucky restaurant was almost full to capacity, many of which had arrived while they were waiting for their meals.
Yolanda placed a fork full of curry into her mouth and watched as a few of the waiters started taking the floral arrangements from the coffins.
“Do you know what’s going on?” Betty asked, wiping a bit of rice from her lips.
“No, all I know is that this is supposed to be a special event that only happens once a year. They don’t typically open this late at night.”
Yolanda and Betty heard a click and turned to watch one of the waiters lock the door to the restaurant. They glanced at each other.
“They don’t want us to leave,” Betty said.
“I guess not,” Yolanda said as her skin began to prickle.
The other customers grew quiet, and the clinking of silverware being placed on the table could be heard. Yolanda noticed the waiters standing in a line in front of the ordering counter, each with a candle in hand. One of them began to pray, and the others followed. Scanning the restaurant, Yolanda noticed some of the customers were also praying while the others, who appeared to be tourists, only watched. Some of them caught her eyes with a quizzical look. The prayer stopped, and the waiters scattered across the restaurant, each standing as a sentinel along the walls and corners.
“Yo, this is getting so weird,” Betty said.
“You say that all the time,” Yolanda said.
“No, I’m serious now.”
The two of them went back to eating. Yolanda was close to finishing her plate when she heard a scratching noise. She glanced at Betty, who stared back. Yolanda peered at the other tables; some of the customers heard it, while others seemed unaware. The scratching returned, even louder than the last.
“Yo, tell me it’s not coming from that coffin over there,” Betty said, her eyes wide.
Yolanda turned to stare at the coffin. The coffin shook, and she blinked, trying to focus on what she was seeing. A scraping sound echoed across the restaurant in different tones as each of the coffins swung open. The crowd erupted in screams and gasps. The muskiness of decay filled the interior, and coughing ensued as plumes of dust wafted toward the ceiling.
Betty grabbed hold of Yolanda’s arm. “This is not funny! What kind of dinner show is this?”
“Dinner show? You think this is a dinner show?” Yolanda said.
“Well, yeah. There’s no way that this is real, right?”
The coffins opened wide as more dust poured out from inside. Yolanda saw a hand grab the edge of the coffin, its bony fingers gripping and sliding along the edge. A ragged torso and a head raised itself. Running feet were heard, and Yolanda glanced back at the door. A group of people stood in front of the door as they tried to go past the waiter who stood guard.
“You cannot leave, or they will escape,” the waiter said loudly as if to announce it to everyone.
“These people in costumes are really scaring the crap out of these people,” Betty said.
“This is not what I expected.”
The corpses gradually stood up, their emaciated bodies swaying inside the coffins. At a coffin not too far from Yolanda, one of the corpses attempted to step out of the coffin but tripped over the edge, landing face-first, its head popping off and skidding underneath a table. The people nearby jumped out of their tables and dashed to the entrance. Betty screamed and followed the others. Yolanda sat transfixed in place. Her arm was being pulled; Betty had come back.
“We need to go now!” Betty said, yanking at her. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I have a bad feeling that those aren’t costumed actors.”
A crowd was forming at the entrance, and some customers began raising their voices at the waiters. It took all of the waiters to block the doors. The corpses shuffled and staggered about in place as if confused.
“Please, don’t be afraid. Please return to your seats. They will not hurt you. This is part of the New Lucky. This we do every year.” One of the staff members said he wore a different set of clothing from what the waiters had on. “Perhaps allowing outsiders and tourists to come was a bad idea.” He said to a waiter standing next to him.
The customers answered with admonishes and threatened with hostility.
“This is going to get ugly,” Betty said, still holding onto Yolanda’s arm.
One of the waiters appeared beside the man who spoke and gave him an ancient-looking book. He opened it to a specific page and began to read from it. The corpses stiffened as if they were being pulled by a string. The man continued to read, and the corpses started to shuffle towards the crowd.
“Please. I didn’t want to do this. But you will sit, and you will have respect for the dead. They will make you.” The man said as he closed the book.
The crowd toppled over each other, trying to create space between them and the corpses. Edging along the wall of the restaurant, the crowd whimpered and murmured. They gradually returned to their seats. Strangely, everyone sat in the same seats that they had sat in before the corpses woke.
“Now we have dessert to serve. You will eat it, and then you may leave.” The man said with a smile.
FYI: The New Lucky restaurant is a real restaurant in India, and they do have coffins inside.
