Michelle was looking for something to do, either for food or money for food in return. She tried various places, but no one was offering a temporary job. That is, until she ran into a restaurant. When she entered the store she saw a big, rotund dark-skinned man, his coloring reminiscent of chocolate.
"May I take your order?" he said in rough Japanese. There was no doubt that the man was a foreigner from Michelle's point of view, though she was a foreigner herself.
"Oh, I'm not ordering anything, I'm looking for a temporary job, or at least some food in return for some work."
"Some temporary job?" he asked, "Or food?" he added, even more concerned. "What's wrong girl, you homeless?"
"I will be if I don't find some food for my friend's birthday," Michelled answered piteously.
"If yo' this desperate, ain't it a bit late to be thinkin' 'bout this?" he asked.
"My younger sister already had something made, but... my even younger sister ate it all," Michelle lied at the last minute, unwilling to tell this stranger what she had done. "But Maggie-chan blamed both of us."
The man looked at her with disbelief. "Damn girl, I be pissed as shit m'self, though I ain't sure why she blamed you." Though in the back of his mind he was thinking ‘Man this girl is seriously bullshittin'! She ate some of teh food herself!'
"Please sir, help me. I don't want to my friend's birthday to be ruined," Michelle said while crying great big crocodile tears for the man's benefit.
"Hush girl, everything will be aight. My name is Leroy Jenkins, I mean Jenkins Leroy. Shit, I keep on fo'gettin' that you say yo' name backwards ‘round here," he said, following with a small laugh.
Michelle laughed a little as well, and said "I know that Americans say their name differently from us. Your accent is American, but it's rather unique," Michelle noted.
Leroy just laughed. "Girl, I'm from Mississippi, the Deep South of America! Ah, I get that a lot, bein' a black man in Japan. Do you know about the Deep South?"
Michelle gave him a somewhat displeased stare and told him, "Just because I'm a blonde doesn't mean that I'm stupid. I know about the ‘Deep South.'" Truth be told, she'd read a book set there at one time, and visited for at least a couple of days on a particularly memorable case.
Leroy laughed it off and told her, "Look girl, I too belong to a group that has been stereotyped as ‘stupid,' so I ain't gonna assume that you're stupid because you're a blonde. Ain't a whole lot of people here in Japan know what the Deep South is."
Hearing that, Michelle returned back to her laid-back nature and giggled then apologized to him.
"I'm so sorry Jenkins-san, I assumed when I shouldn't have. Anyway, I do know what the Deep South is, but I've never been to Mississippi."
The Paper Sisters had once visited a friend from Atlanta and another one from Birmingham for the memorable case.
"Well you ain't missin' much girl. Mississippi is a nice place to visit, but not to live. I can tell you more later but anyways, this is ma' restaurant, Sho' Nuff Chicken n' Waffles. It's the only chicken and waffles place in Tokyo, probably in all of Japan!" he said, following with a chuckle.
The restaurant looked small on the outside but seemed quite spacious inside. The restaurant was decorated with light beige wallpaper. There were pictures and photos displaying various aspects of Southern African-American culture hanging on the left side of the place. There was a regular wooden counter with two cash registers on top of it. At the top of the wall behind the cash register were pictures of the various dishes served in the restaurant. To the right of the place were four green tables seating two and six other tables seating four. The restaurant played American Soul and R&B music from the 60s through the 80s.
"I'm brand new here and I'm six-foot, five inches and two-hundred seventy pounds. Most o' the folk around here are scared of ma' black ass. Look, if you need a quick job, I got one for ya', promotin' ma' business. Ma' wife Sachiko can tell you more. I ain't so good about the details," he said with his strong Southern African-American accent.
"Did I hear you call my name?" A light, delicate voice aired from the back in Japanese, and a small woman entered the room.
"I sure did, honey! I found someone who's willin' ta work fo' us!" He said to her in English, apparently understanding.
Sachiko came out to the main area of the restaurant. She looked like the exact opposite of Leroy. She was barely 5 feet tall and 100 pounds, with dark green hair and amethyst eyes. When she stood next to her husband, her head was barely above his waist.
"Hi, I'm Jenkins Sachiko, how are you doing?"
"I'm Cheung Michelle, and I'm fine thank you."
"Good, good. My husband likely just informed you that we just opened this restaurant, and are in need of a vibrant personality to attract customers. My husband... is not so good at this, and I'm not very remarkable myself, so we thought that you could bring some customers here by wearing that chicken suit at the corner and telling people to come to our restaurant." Despite the flattering beginning to Sachiko's speech, the last part caught somewhere in Michelle's mind. She eyed the chicken suit at the corner, but was hesitant to wear such a ridiculous thing.
"You... really want me to wear that?"
"It's just a one-day thing, Cheung-san," Sachiko reassured her, using her most flattering tone. "If you do a good job not only will we give you some food, we will also give you some money!"
Michelle thought about it. It probably wouldn't hurt too much to wear a chicken suit for one day; more importantly, it couldn't be too hard either.
"O-kay! I'll do it!" Michelle said with her usual perkiness.
"All right! That's the spirit, Cheung-san!" Sachiko replied with apparent enthusiasm.
Michelle put on the chicken suit and went outside to promote the restaurant.
"Bak, bak, bak, bak! Come to Sho' Nuff's Chicken n' Waffles, we got the best chicken and waffles in all of Tokyo!"