Alas, alack! PART OF OKOBOLDTERFEST! but the month is ending! May as well end on a bang...

Art by  kyrio and colour by  foulfrost...


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Friedrich sighed inwardly as he walked quietly down the darkened corridor. He’d not intended to stay so late at the gym, but he’d made the foolish mistake of dropping his energy drink all across the floor as he was about to head into the changing rooms to change out of his badminton clothes; and he’d felt so guilty about the poor cleaner trying to mop it up that he’d volunteered to help for a few minutes. Now the other players had gone, and the gym was being locked up for the night; he’d not even had time to change, in fact he’d barely had time to grab his gym bag before the night security guy locked the door to the badminton court, and asked him to move along.

Damn. Not the best evening.

Something caught his eye as he strode the last few dozen paces toward the exit; he wasn’t quite sure what made him look around, but what he saw made him stop in his tracks, turn, and pause in sudden confusion.

It was a sign that said, “Free Cola!”

A small stall was set up in a side corridor – outside the doorway leading into the main gynmasium’s changing room, and opposite the toilets and showers. There was a lot of advertising blurb he didn’t bother reading – his attention was more taken by the low, cloth-covered table covered in half-full plastic cups.

He’d not normally be that interested; but it was a warm day outside the air-conditioned hallway, and he was feeling pretty thirsty after losing his drink earlier; the bottle he’d picked up from the floor had barely a mouthful left in it. He could probably wait until he got home, sure… but why not have a little something now?

He glanced around to see if anyone was around; then walked over. The drinks were clearly separated into two sets, one labelled ‘A’ and one labelled ‘B’; presumably one was the ‘new’ and one was the ‘other leading brand’.

Friedrich took a cup from the ‘A’ pile and sipped it cautiously, half-expecting someone to walk over and ask him what he was doing, at any moment. Hmm, the taste was familiar; the same as the drink he’d spilled earlier. Yeah, that was the ‘other leading brand’ identified, he chuckled to himself, finishing the cup.

He put it down and eyed the ‘B’ set. Well, he was curious; that was the point of the sign, after all. He grabbed one, and took a careful, pensive taste. Identical? No… not quite. It was hard to tell. He nodded approvingly; the facsimile was pretty good, nearly the real thing, but he was pretty sure he knew which was which.

He idly read over the rest of the sign. There was an opportunity to win a new mountain bike for anyone who took the ‘taste test’ and filled out the little questionnaire. Maximum one cup of each per person, to ‘play fair’ in the competition, the sign said? More like, to make sure as many people as possible gave their address to a junk-mailing company, he thought.

He glanced at the two empty cups in front of him. Whatever company organised this must have plenty spare… and the measure they’d poured in each cup was pretty stingy, barely a mouthful. He eyed his empty drinks bottle in the top of his gym bag. He really shouldn’t… but surely they’d not miss a couple of cups, nobody was watching…

He unscrewed the bottle cap, and carefully poured a cup of ‘A’ in. A little spilled, but he managed to get most of it in there – what little there was. He picked up another cup, then another, and another… there, his bottle was about a third full. Not bad, this should help refresh him on the way home.

He picked up the six cups he’d just emptied, feeling slightly sheepish suddenly that he’d taken so many; and was about to turn around when he remembered there were two sets of cups. He cursed under his breath; dammit! They’d notice right away if there were half a dozen cups missing from one side of the table, it was obvious!

He sighed. Nothing for it. He grabbed some cups from the ‘B’ set, and re-arranged the two sets of cups until they looked about equal; and then, quickly, he emptied the spare cups into his bottle as well, until it was over half full. At least the two drinks tasted about the same, mixing them shouldn’t be a problem.