Rabbit hole Carnival: Happy Holidays

 “You too, huh?” Renee spoke as serve up a drink. “You didn’t strike me as having that kind' of problem.”

“Then perhaps that sense of yours is growing dull?” Vantenti asked, as Renee chuckled.

“It doesn’t work that way.” Renee replied, still giggling. “I can’t predict broken wheels taking months or anything fancy like that. “Nor have I ever claimed otherwise.”

“Oh?” Valenti said. “Then how doesn’t it work?”

“A magician never reveals her secrets,” Renee winked. “Daddy! We’ll need some more Gobble Bobble, Planted Beanstalk, and a few Fruit Pyro to the mix.” Renee took a bow. “If you excuse me.” She walked back behind the bar, and served up a few different drinks to a few different tables.

“Do you know how she does it?” Vatenti asked Nick as he gave him another Shocking Apple.

“Not a clue.” Nick Replied. “Though I do have one theory, which she does somewhat prove.”

“The old coinflip one?” Renee asked, as she slipped past by Nick. “I do like that one, and think it fits."

Renee walked behind the bar, and then popped back out “It’ll be a few minutes! I need one more fruit pyro made!” 

“I’ll make it. You serve up the others. It’ll be on the bar table before you’re done!” Nick replied. “Excuse me a moment.” 

Nick planted 2 more drinks on the bar table, and Renee grabbed one as she was passing by, before serving up 7 other drinks.

“Always busy during the holidays.” Valenti replied with a chuckle of his own. “What was that theory of yours?”

“You can do two things with a past as troubled as ours has been.” Nick replied. “You can do as my brother did and take it out on others, or you can do as I did and open up a bar here to help people get through the things you couldn’t.”

“Such a view on life, correct me if it is otherwise, would not eliminate a scale to that sort of thing.” Valenti replied.

“And Renee has never had control over that sort of scale,” Nick replied. “but she sees it better than most ever could.”

“She just knows.” Valenti said. “Her dance would have implied as much.”

“This bar? Got vastly more popular the day she started being a part of it.” Nick said.

“Aha!” Renee replied, as she started walking back behind the bar. “The truth comes out, at last!”

“Merry Christmas to you too, dear.” Nick said.

“And a happy new year.” Renee replied, as she got more drinks. “I’m coming! I’m coming!”

“She sees it better than most.” Nick continued. “The strings connecting all of us. The struggles that bind us all to this grand thing we call life.”

“So where does she fit on the scale?” Valenti asked.

“No, you misunderstand.” Nick replied. “I see it as well mind you. But Renee, that scale is an open book to her. Coming from two parents who abused, pushed, and forced her into every other view no less. But she reads the signs, she can see the ways better than anyone else I would've hired.”

“It all just is to me,” Renee stretched her left eyelid.I just see a soul where others don’t. I honestly don’t get how the rest of you don’t process it.”

“I do often have a hypothesis.” Raymond said. “One—”

“One more Gobble Bobble. I know. I know.” Renee replied. “I just had daddy make like 3 more.”

“Those like Renee,” Raymond continued. “Those who are forced to read a troubled situation all their lives. Simply learn to read whatever it is they learn to read.”

“A part of the soul?” Valenti asked.

“Do you ever call it something, Renee?” Ray asked.

“The vibeflow? The strings, the red thread as some of you call it, I think?” Renee said. “I don’t know what I would call it, but something just sort of… is.”

“Those of us who have been troubled learn to see this ‘vibeflow’ better than most.” Ray continued. “They simply know… no feel how the story goes.”

“It’s not even a feeling, sometimes.” Renee replied. “It just… is. It is how it is going to go.”

“I meant a many that say as much.” Valenti replied. “They do not all use this power for sins.”
Valenti raised his hat, and watched the group chuckle. “But they read a lot more than I think most ever know.”

“I’ll just refill this.” Renee replied. “Another Shocking Apple? Valenti simply tipped his hat and Renee went back behind the bar.