The All-Seeing Eye by Mike Mignola

Author:Mike Mignola
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

CHAPTER 8

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The proprietor of the Bagel Palace treated Hellboy and Cassie like royalty. It helped that Cassie had phoned ahead to say they were coming. Hellboy generally found that people reacted badly when he turned up in places he wasn’t expected. Sometimes they reacted badly when he turned up in places he was expected, but that was their problem.

Luigi Spineze, however, had had a half hour to get used to the idea, and as soon as they stepped through the door, Hellboy ducking his head beneath the lintel, he bustled towards them with open arms and a wide grin. He was a jolly little beach ball of a man, his dark bushy eyebrows and bristling moustache making up for the fact that he had very little hair on his shiny dome of a head.

“Cassie, my lovely girl!” he exclaimed, his accent an odd combination of Cockney and his native Italian. He enfolded her in a fatherly bear hug, then stepped back, his hands on her shoulders. “But let me look at you! Beautiful as always! You light up my life like a lantern!”

Cassie was laughing and shaking her head as he turned to Hellboy. “And Hellboy! What an honor! I saw your picture in the paper this morning, but I never dreamed I would see you in the flesh! And in my restaurant too!”

Hellboy grinned bashfully. “Yeah,” he said. “Ain’t life strange?”

The Bagel Palace—perhaps more of a coffee shop than a restaurant, despite what Luigi had said—was around half full. As usual, Hellboy was aware of people staring at him. Out of the corner of his eye he had seen food fall out of one guy’s gaping mouth as he had stepped through the door.

“I give you my best table!” Luigi said expansively. “Over here by the window! Come! Come!”

He began to move away. Hellboy pointed to a table on the opposite side of the room.

“Actually I’d rather sit back there in the corner,” he muttered.

“But this is my best table!” Luigi reiterated.

“Yeah, it’s very nice,” said Hellboy. “It’s just a bit . . . well . . . public.”

Luigi looked crestfallen—perhaps he had been hoping that Hellboy’s presence would draw the crowds—but he conceded graciously. Hellboy and Cassie sat down. The table Hellboy had chosen was sandwiched between the kitchen and the toilets, but at least it was relatively private. The two of them ordered bagels and coffee (despite the huge breakfast he had eaten that morning, Hellboy ordered six bagels to Cassie’s one), and then they sat looking at each other for a moment. Hellboy tugged at his goatee a little self-consciously. “Nice place,” he muttered.

Cassie let loose a burst of soft laughter.

“What?” said Hellboy. “Did I say something funny?”

She raised a hand and wafted it between them. “No, it’s just . . . this is so weird.”

“What is?”

“This situation. Sitting here with you. I mean . . . what do I say to you? What do I say that you could possibly find interesting?”

Hellboy shrugged. He had encountered this attitude lots of times, but that didn’t mean he had ever gotten used to it.

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