Pinocchio

Chapter 13 : the New Guy

"I've packaged everything and all you need to do is to send them." Penelope smiles happily.

"You're really excited about this, aren't you?" He grins when he sees how happy Penelope is. He's never seen Penelope this excited.

"Oh, don't be grumpy!" She laughs. "You know, soon, we can hire more staff to get more things done."

"Don't get too excited, Penny." He warns her. She punches her arms playfully.

"Now you go out there. And don't forget to spread the brochure I've made! See you at lunch!"

Gustavo only holds up his hand and immediately leaves. Penelope hops onto her computer to check on the website. A few moment after, she hears someone knocks the door.

"Gustavo! It's Danny Boy. I have the new supplies here."

Penelope stays silence. I thought he's coming in at lunchtime!

"Man, come on! I know you're inside!" Danny Boy starts looking through the window, but he doesn't see anything, or anyone. Penelope hides behind her computer perfectly.

"Alright, man. I'm leaving. But don't blame me if you don't get fresh supply!" And Danny Boy goes away.

Penelope releases a sigh of relief. But outside, Danny Boy knows there's someone inside. So, with his bad intentions, he's determined to go inside and see who, or what, Gustavo has been hiding. No one knows, except he himself, why he's doing it.

He takes out his knife and cuts his left palm. He immediately puts it inside his bag. Then, innocently, he kicks one of the nearest statues and falls dramatically onto the ground while swearing and cursing. He takes his phone with his right hand and pretending to open his inbox message.

Hearing the loud thud and a voice of a person crying with pain, the feminint side of Penelope forces her butt to immediately go out of the house and see what happens.

"Oh my God, are you okay?!" She cries as he sees Danny Boy is trying to get up while his left hand is covered in blood and his left knees are scratched.

Danny Boy widens his eyes in surprise and he is totally speechless. What he sees is beyond his imagination. He was expecting that Gustavo is hiding something dangerous like a stolen statue or stolen ruby, or hiding someone who's a witness of a murderer. But never did he expect to see a living, and moving mannequin.

Ignoring his shocked and judgmental expression, Penelope takes him carefully inside the house and puts him in the sofa. She takes the aid box and takes some bandage and medicine. She sits down on the floor and starts curing him.

"W-what are you?" He asks in horror.

She stops and, with horror in her eyes, she sighs. "Please don't tell anyone about me. I'm not supposed to show myself in front of you, if it's not for an emergency situation."

"Does Gustavo tell you to keep this a secret?"

"No. I told him to keep this a secret. I never forced him to keep it a secret, but he's really nice and he helps me hiding myself. And I would really appreciate if you would it a keep it a secret, too."

"Your secret's safe with me. I promise." But behind his back, he crosses his fingers. It's childish, but he never intend to keep it a secret, anyway. An amazing invention like this isn't supposed to be kept home.

She smiles and she stands up. "So. About the supply. Do you bring it with you?"

"Oh, yeah. Let me take them for you."

"No, no, no. Just leave them in the front yard and you can leave. I don't understand the payment. Ask Gustavo next time you came, okay?"

"Sure. Give me five minutes and I'm done." He smiles and leaves.

After he takes out all the supply, he waves her goodbye and hops onto his truck. When he sees that Penelope has come in, he smirks and fishes out his cellphone from his pocket.

When he's connected to the person his calling, he chuckles. "Hey, Boss. Ya wanna make some money?"

***

Gustavo opens the front door and sighs. It's super hot outside and he immediately goes in before he gets burned out like a helpless chicken. He takes of his shirt and changes it into a thinner one before he heads to the kitchen.

He has a quite rough day, arguing with the counter boy who insisted that he had to pay more than he should. He solved the problem when the manager came in between the "war", but apparently the manager was on the boy's side.

In fury, Gustavo threw the money on the table and left immediately. He sighs and kind of regrets what he did. What if the packages were broken because of my bad attitude?

"Hey!" Penelope suddenly comes out from the kitchen with a bowl of green soup in her hand. She puts it in front of him.

"What is it?" He frowns.

"Seaweed soup. I saw a pack of seaweed in the fridge and thought it would be good to make it into a soup. You know, for a variation."

He nods.

"Are you okay?" Penelope goes to the kitchen to have a bowl of soup for herself."

He shrugs. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Now, now." She sits next to him and takes a spoonful of soup. "You told me you wouldn't lie."

"It's something I don't like to talk about."

He takes the remote control and turns on the TV. He stays silent while having his lunch.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine. Now leave me alone." He retorts.

Penelope is shocked when Gustavo snaps her. But she remains silent, afraid that Gustavo might do something bad.

So they continue their lunch, in silence.