Father and son stood in front of the shop looking at where they were. David didn’t know what to think, and he looked at Max. The boy had a grin.

  “What are you smiling at?” David asked him incredulously.

  Max looked over at his dad and shook his head while he crossed his arms against his chest. “Don’t you get it?”

  “Get what?”

  Max motioned around to the new neighborhood they found themselves in. It seemed to just be another business district now that David actually looked at it. A much more medieval version of where his shop was, but still a business district. There were wagons and carts in front of buildings loading up, and now that the sun was fully up, people were starting to walk around with baskets of produce.

  None of the people seemed to really acknowledge the pair, besides nodding or mumbling a good morning. No one seemed to mind they were in the middle of the street. It’s not like there were cars driving way too fast through the neighborhood. The worst they got were some muttering and dirty looks.

  “We’ve been isekai’d,” Max said with a laugh.

  David glared down at his son. “Dammit, Max, this isn’t one of your anime shows,” he scolded.

  Max just laughed and headed back inside with David shortly behind him. Max was a full head shorter than David was and had one of those hair-do’s from the 80s where it was longer on one side than the other. David couldn’t understand that haircut, but Max listened to a lot of that emo music and judging from the photos, he saw it seemed like a popular haircut.

  Max sat on one stool at his lunch counter and folded his arms, and David paced the grocery store by the door. He wore his usual work attire: comfortable black pants and a basic white kitchen shirt. He had one of the more Asian styles though, instead of it buttoning up it wrapped around his midsection. The rainbow kitchen clogs and rainbow glasses he wore really rounded out the attire.

  Finally, David stopped pacing and pointed at Max. “How do we get out?”

  Max’s eyebrow rose, and he shook his head while he crossed his arms against his chest. “Uh, well…” Max paused and considered it, looking at his father, and finally he just shrugged. “It depends.”

  David frowned. He should have known it would not be some easy situation. A caw from Pepper made him turn his head and look at the bird. “Well, at least I got…” he trailed off and his eyes opened wide. “What about Naomi?”

  Max lifted himself from the stool and raised his hands placatingly. “I’m sure she’s fine, pops. The question is if we’re fine?” He asked with a frown.

  David just cocked a brow and shrugged. “Yeah, I feel okay.”

  Max shook his head and sat back down with a heavy sigh. “No, pops, usually in anime or stories when someone ends up in a different world. It’s because they died,” he explained while he looked at his clogs.

  David’s eyes went wide once more. “Heaven? Although, judging from outside, it might be one of the hells? Is your mo-”

  “Pops, stop!” Max yelled the demand, which only made Pepper caw loudly once more.

  David gaped at his son. He could count on one hand the amount of times Max raised his voice like that. Max was strong headed, much like his father, and the two clashed often. So much so, they didn’t even talk much without Angela to play referee.

  “I just, I just don’t know. I don’t know if that’s what happened to us, you know?” Max lifted his head and his eyes glossed over. “I don’t want to be in some weird medieval world.”

  Just like that, Max went from being the strong, confident cook he had become. David saw a bit of Max’s previous self there. A bit of the little girl he used to be and David stepped over to him and put an arm around Max’s shoulders and pulled his head into his chest.

  “I know buddy, I know. Don’t worry, we’re here and we’re together. We’ll figure it out,” the father promised his son with a pat on his back. “You know about this kind of shit if that’s what happened, so we just need to figure out if that happened. For now…” Just as he was speaking, the door to the shop opened and a little bell rang from above the door.

  “Sorry, are you open?” It was a gruff male’s voice who just poked his head in through the swinging wooden door of the shop.

  Max had pulled away from his father at the sound of the bell and they both looked each other in the eye. Max just shrugged. David’s mind reeled and he shrugged.

  It might be a good way to learn some things about the world? He thought to himself.

  “Uh, yeah, I don’t see why not,” he said back to the man.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  David walked away from Max and went behind the counter to grab the green work apron he wore during work hours and put it over his head.

  “Good, good. It’s nice to see a new shop in the neighborhood.” the man sounded gruff but friendly, and genuinely excited to have them here. “Only thing is, I don’t even remember this building being here yesterday?” he squinted and looked between father and son. He mumbled, more to himself than anything.

  David gave a nervous chuckle, and Max just smiled awkwardly.

  The man just trailed on and shook his head, though. “Probably some cultivator trick,” he mumbled and looked them both over. Black pants and a rough shirt clothed him, and David thought he looked like someone from an old kung fu movie. His hairstyle furthered that look by having his long hair bound up in a standing tail like a topknot. The man was older and what David imagined he looked like in his head. Still thin and built and probably able to do the moves from the kung fu movies.

  “Well, just look around and help yourself to anything you find,” David said as he stood behind the counter nervously. Max had stood as well and went to his usual place behind his cooking station. David noticed the boy moving around and doing his usual prep work like it had been any other day.

  The man nodded his head and spent some time looking at the teas in the shop. “This is interesting packaging you have for your teas. I’ve never seen such a thing, and I’m not sure if it makes me want to buy any tea or to steer clear.”

  David laughed and smiled and tried to remember if he looked over the tea. Did they still have the colorful packaging with the Chinese script saying the brand names? Was that a proper language here? Or did they just look like gibberish to the man?

  The shop owner watched the man intently and his nerves were on edge from how the customer would react to anything. He watched him shrug and then grab some tea and mumble about how he needed it and his wife liked to try new things.

  “Oh my, what about all of this?” the man questioned and looked back at David with wide and confused eyes.

  David heard Max fire up his wok station when he walked by and wondered what the hell he was doing. He ignored his son and went to stand next to the man with a smile. “These are called instant noodles.”

  The man looked at him, his brows pinched together in a mix of confusion and anger. “What’s so instant about them? My wife will make noodles and they’re pretty instant.”

  David gave his first genuine chuckle and reached for one of the cheaper packages. One of the ones that single mothers or the crack heads would come in and buy that came in a styrofoam cup already. He opened the paper wrapping and plastic and then peeled back the paper lid to show the man.

  “You see? There are noodles already made in there and it even has some vegetables,” David explained. “You just have to get some boiling water and pour it in. Then close the cover for five minutes. Then you’ll have ramen.”

  “Ramen?!” the man shouted and looked at David, who just laughed and shrugged at the man. “And what do you mean, those are vegetables?”

  David laughed another moment and held the cup under his arm and pointed at some of the other ones. “There’s lots of different brands and flavors and different noodle types. It’s a good easy meal if you’ve had a long day.”

  The customer grunted and walked away from the section, and went over to the counter. “I always have a long day. When I get home, my wife has dinner ready and waiting for me, which is the only reason I’m getting this strange-looking tea. She’ll probably love it. The woman doesn’t have any taste buds…” he continued to grumble to himself as he dug around in his pockets, exposing a small pouch.

  While he looked, David moved behind the counter and wondered how much to charge the man for the tea. What would be the conversion rate between US Dollars and ancient taels? Were they taels?

  “Uh, that’ll be three…” but before David could finish, the man put three small golden coins on the counter.

  “I’m Xu Xia. I own the saloon on the other side of town. The big one down by the water,” he said and looked at David expectantly.

  Without thinking, David went to reply easily. “Oh, I’m Da-”

  “Hai, sorry, sir. Would you mind if I served our customer a sample?” Max smiled and held up a plate of his General Tso chicken.

  Xia looked at the two with a raised eyebrow. “I thought your name started with a D?”

  Max shook his head. “No, he was going to tell one of his jokes that would make you groan and never want to return. His name is Hai and I’m Wong Yun, his son.”

  David lowered his head and smirked, thankful for his son’s quick thinking of using their middle names. “Yes, of course, son. I’m sure he’ll love the chicken.”

  Xia smiled and rubbed at his belly. “I’ll never say no to some free food,” he said as he reached for the chopsticks Max held out to him.

  A moment later, the man was chewing on a piece of the slightly spicy crispy chicken and gave soft noises of approval. “This is good. What did you say this was called?”

  “Oh, they call it General Tso chicken,” Max explained.

  The man chewed for another moment and nodded his head. “Ah yes, I’ve heard of the General. Brilliant mind for war.”

  Max and David exchanged a look.

  “Well, thank you very much for the chicken… uh, if you don’t mind?” he eyed the plate, the desire for another piece clear.

  “Oh yes, of course. Here, take the whole plate, sir,” Max said and held the plate out for him.

  Xia greedily reached for the plate and Max let it go. Then they both watched the man leave the shop. “I’ll have this chicken, and you two can have those…… instant noodles,” he said this like the words themselves tasted disgusting in his mouth.

  “Why’d you give him one of the big plates? You know we don’t have that many of them,” David asked, still looking through the opening in the wall to the outside.

  “Didn’t think you’d mind since I saved your ass,” Max replied easily.

  David gave a loud snort and grabbed his son’s head, messing up his hair. “That was pretty quick thinking. Good job Max,” David said, relieved.

  Max just chuckled a little more and went to go clean the dishes from cooking the chicken and David raised his head as he thought of something.

  “Wait, Max, how did the burner work? I’m going to guess there isn’t a gas line to hook up to,” David said as he walked up behind Max.

  They both stood at the station, and Max shrugged. “I dunno. I just turned it on and it fired right up.”

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