I visited the burger joint in Monfeld a few times. The menu was always junky and overpriced. That weird halfway house between a proper franchise and something homecooked.
But my story today comes from someone who was a big fan. This is another tale where I am impressed by the physicality of what happens. You cannot dismiss this as a trick of the light.
As always I am happy to ask them any questions you may have.
You have to admire the ambition of the fast food joint in the mall. It would have been so easy to allow a corporation to control the space. Maybe it was based on costs. But I like to think that someone behind the scenes made a creative decision. A brilliant decision to give Monfeld a mascot.
The creature was fluffy, with neon green fur. He stretched his arms across the sign of the restaurant, and grinned a broad grin. The food was the usual burger and chips fare, nothing special from price to quality. But they actually bothered to get special packaging with the monster on the front.
Lomos. That was his name. Kind of strange. It is funny the stuff you latch on when younger, because for a while he was one of my favourite things. I loved Lomos, and always looked for him outside of Monfeld when we visited malls and petrol stations. But of course I never found him.
He is the reason I returned to the shopping centre last week. I wanted to find some leftover packaging. My dream would be the birthday stuff. But any Lomos merchandise would do.
My walk down the corridors had definite muscle memory. I thought of all post cinema food hall trips. All the birthday parties or random Sunday splurges. Even here in the dark on this gritty floor, the excitement still vibrated through my arms.
The sign was gone. A terrible blow. This burger joint was now a space rather than a location. But a few skeletal booths still existed, so I had a look.
I found the box after eighteen minutes of searching. Dust fell from the withered cardboard, and caked my hands. But inside was everything I had ever wanted. The birthday cap. Stacks of cardboard boxes flattened into squares. A snake of cups with Lonos’s grinning face on. The box was bulky, but not quite as heavy as I was expecting. This was cardboard after all.
The noise started in the corridor. A slapping of feet on hard ground. A dirty window at the back of Monfeld lit the space. And back near the fast food joint, was a figure with green fur. Those arms must have been five feet on either side. The fur was toxic waste. It ran towards me, mouth open in a forever grin.
I tried to hold onto the box. But that padding was so close, and the cardboard so dirty. Down it went with a clatter. I kept running, but took one look back. Lomos crouched towards the floor, shovelling everything back in with its big long arms.
He did not follow.
Every night I wake up, and think of that box. I have to remember. It was never mine.
