On the walk home, his mind was drifting from the events of his life that had lead up to this point. He thought of his family, more so about his father, an amazing Chef in his prime. Chéz had learned more than his fair share about cooking from his dad. He was taught all the basic cooking skills while he was still just a young colt. He was always helping out in the small kitchen in their home. And a couple times he got to tour his father’s real kitchen. But when his dad passed away, it still took Chez a while to figure out that cooking was what he wanted to do. In his time of mourning, he finally understood, and his cutie mark shone through for the first time.
~~~~~~~
20 Years Earlier
“BUT MOM!” Chéz whined, “Do I have to get a job?”
The argument had been going on for weeks if not months. Chéz had dropped out of main stream High School and was doing distance learning. Over time, his mother had given him the ultimatum of “Get a Job or Get out!” It was tough love, but she knew it would work. He lazed around the house and barely got any school work done; he was just wasting his time away. These days, he just didn’t have the energy or willingness to do anything. He had dipped into a deep state of depression since his dad died. He didn’t know it, and, if he did, he wasn’t about to admit it.
“Yes, and stop bickering about it” His mother shot back. “Here is the classifieds and I know that the Brohawk Pizza up the street is hiring. So get moving, there are plenty of jobs out there, so find one.”
“Ugh, Alright, Alright, I’ll get to it” Chéz moaned as he headed back to his room. He knew he had to get his flank in gear so he meandered his way over to his desk and started looking around for a parchment and quill to write out what little information he had for his resume.
The next day he set out to finally get his first job, he took his mother’s advice and started at the Brohawk Pizza. When he entered the building, he asked the host if he could have an application for a kitchen position. The host obliged and passed over the paperwork that was needed to be filled out and lead Chéz to a booth. Just as Chéz was finishing, the manager came over and had a little talk with him. It was just the basic interview questions, but Chéz was so nervous that he ended up blowing the interview. He left quickly after applying, knowing he wouldn’t get the job. As soon as he was outside, he let a nervous and depressed sigh out, finally understanding that getting into the working world was not going to be easy. Inside the building, unbeknownst to Chéz, the manager had kept his resume and passed it off to one of his friends’ who was opening a similar restaurant not far away.
Two days after applying at Brohawk Pizza, he got a job offer from a different Pizza joint that Chéz had never applied at or even heard of before. He didn’t think anything of it at the time, all he could think of was, ‘Hey at least my mom will stop bugging me’, but this was going to be the start of the rest of his life. Working in kitchens, he soon found out was where he wanted to be. It was hard work but you always got to see the fruit of your labour from the look in in the guest’s eyes as they ate their meal. Sure it was nothing glamorous it was pizza but it was the first thing he took pride in in the year since his father passed away.
~~~~~~
Chéz finally got home, not realizing how easy it was to get lost in the small town. He did learn one thing on his trek, he is on the exact opposite side of town from Oculus, and Toss is right in the middle. He made his way up the stairs to his front door fumbling, for his keys. He finally got them out and cursed at himself for not leaving the front light on so he could see the key hole at night. After a couple of minutes of fighting with the door, he hit the sweet spot and turned the key before it had a chance to fight its way out.
Making his way inside, Chéz lit a cigarette and stumbled to the fridge. Opening the door, he quickly realized that he had what was joked as a Bachelors Fridge. Having nothing but; condiments, left over Balikun Food, milk and apple cider. He grabbed a cider and released it from the other five in the six pack. Heading upstairs, he went to the bathroom to have a quick shower before bed. Finishing his cider and putting out the cigarette, he jumped in and could feel the sweat and strain of the day wash off of him as the shower beaded down on him. Letting out a relaxing sigh, he turned off the water, grabbed the towel and made his way to the bedroom to sleep. He closed the door behind him and felt his way to his bed because he was too tired to even try to find the lights. Just before he slipped, into bed something outside his window caught his eye. Backing away from the bed he made, he, shuffled over to see what couldn’t be described with mere words. Looking over the town of Ponyville from his third story bedroom window, in his house on a hill, he could see everything and it was just breath taking. Luna’s moon that beamed from overhead and glistened off the river and fountains while lanterns that danced in the streets gave a small warm glow to the houses that lined the streets. It was a beautiful night; he knew this was where he wanted to stay. He smiled calmly to himself and made his way to his bed. Life couldn’t be any better for the stallion.
The next morning, Chéz woke bright and early to the sound of his alarm clock’s loud buzzing and beeping. These days it was the only thing that could pull him out of sleep. With almost military-like precision, a hoof flung up from the bed, smacked the snooze button and shot back under the covers. It was amazing that a colt his age could still pull off such speed and movement, but to Chéz, it was all just muscle memory.
“Ugh….” He grumbled to himself. “Why did I drink last night?”
Memories started flowing back to him about the previous night, slowing to rest on the memories of Oculus. “Heh, right, that’s why” he chuckled as he decided not to wait for the alarm to go off again and slowly made his way out of bed. He cringed a bit when his hoofs touched the chilled floor of his bedroom. It was already late September and the temperature was beginning to slowly drop.
As he made his way from his room, he decided that a quick shower would provide some relief to his aching joints. After the shower, he headed downstairs for breakfast. After reaching the landing he headed towards the kitchen but stopped for a moment to admire the old family photos that rested above the fireplace in his living room. There was a photo from almost every generation there; multiple from his mother’s side of the family most dating from the days of his youth, but there was only one from his father’s side. In a rose wood decorative was the large extended family Chéz never met, the only way he knew them was stories his dad told of them. The picture was one of Chéz most prized possessions he always put his family first and would always miss those that had passed on. Taking one last look at the pictures he headed off to the kitchen to see if there was anything worth trying to eat for breakfast.
As soon as he stepped in the kitchen, he realized that he had previously looked last night and knew all that was in the fridge was a little leftover take-out from the other night. He never had any food in the kitchen, ironically for being a well-respected chef he wasn’t one for home cooking. He chuckled at the thought of having the same conversations growing up with his mom.
~~~~~
“It’s your turn to cook tonight, Chéz!” his mother hallowed down the hall.
“Ugh … but MOM I cook all day for people, the last thing I want to do is come home and cook for more people.”
“Oh just do it, there is smoked tuna in the fridge and some pasta or rice in the cupboard.”
He never once won that conversation, it always ended with her just giving him a list of main course ingredients and leaving it there for him to cook. It wasn’t that Chéz was forced to cook, or that he hated cooking for his mother. It was just the fact of cooking that one more meal for the day to end.
“Alright I’ll do it. What do you want rice, pasta … or we do have that romaine in the fridge, I could do a smoked tuna Ceaser salad?”
“Salad sounds good.”
~~~~~~
It was just then that he realized he hadn’t gone to see his mom since he arrived in Ponyville, ‘Maybe she would like to go for breakfast’ he thought about it for a few seconds, and with that he was out the door and heading out. He got about three steps outside before he turned right around and jumped back in the door. He had forgotten how cold it had gotten recently and the crisp fall air nipped at his flesh. He trotted downstairs to the basement, to see if he could find the box of winter clothing that he had thrown randomly down there, not thinking he would have needed it so soon. He finally came across it and grabbed one of his favourite scarfs; it was a plain butter yellow scarf with jet blue tips. His mother had given to him a couple years ago as a Winter Moon Festival present. He made his way back through the sea of boxes, up the stairs and back outside.
Chéz arrived at the front door of his mother’s house after a short trot around town. It was a quaint little bungalow house with large garden that, during the summer, bloomed such brilliant colours. Chéz trotted up to the door and gave a quick knock. His mom was always an early riser, and even in retirement, she got up at the hours she had been so accustomed to. As the door slowly creaked open there was a shill of glee from the other side. The door blew open the rest of the way, and his mother came bounding out so happy to see her son after such a long time.
“Chéz!” she screamed “You finally decided to come visit your old mother, eh? What has it been, two or three years?”
“Hi Mom,” He replied when his mother had calmed down.
His mother looked like she hadn’t aged in almost 10 years. Her royal purple coat and flowing crimson mane still held the same shape and colour as it had for so long. She was still spry and always had too much energy for her own good. After she had broken the longest hug Chéz could remember, she realized that he wasn’t supposed to be in Ponyville; last she heard, he was working in a fancy hotel in Manehattan.
“Chéz…? Why are you standing on my door step?” she asked “Are you no longer working in Manehattan?”
“No, I left Manehattan a couple months ago. I only just recently moved back to Ponyville.” He replied.
“So…. Why are you back then?” She was a little worried now knowing full well that his temper could get the best of him and had, on multiple occasions, left him jobless.
“Well, I was offered an opportunity I couldn’t refuse” he was starting to get excited “I am now the Executive Chef of Toss here in Ponyville.”
There was another shrill sound of glee that came from his mother as she jumped up again to give him another huge hug. He saw this one coming and had braced himself accordingly.
“That’s amazing Chéz, we should celebrate! OH, your father would be so proud of you.”
“Well that’s kind of why I’m here, I was wondering if you wanted to go get breakfast; I have nothing to eat at home and I would like to try out some of the breakfast places around here.”
“Oh, that’s just perfect, I know a great spot for some pancakes.” she ducked back inside to grab her scarf and popped back out moments later.
“So mom which place did you have in mind for these pancakes?”
“Well, there is this darling little place that me and some of my friends love called Sugar Cube Corner. The Cakes are such masters in the art of baking that it’s a very popular spot.”
As they were walking down the street they chatted about the past couple years and all that had happened. Chéz sighed to himself. He was glad to be back with family.