Richard Styner
Teacher
San Leandro
“Ah, my apologies, Master Khufu, I did not hear your entrance,” I said with a small nod of greetings.
Richard Styner laughed boisterously, and clapped me on the shoulder. “Bah, you always expect me to come through the front like a customer! Some day you’ll catch on, and then you’ll be the one spooking me!”
“It is a dream of mine, yes,” I admitted with a wry grin that matched his own. “Perhaps some day I’ll get lucky.”
Khufu nodded approvingly, then turned with a flourish to inspect the displays I had set up at the front of the booth. “Getting everything in order early, I see! No doubt so you can slink away and enjoy the royal parade, hm?” He looked over his shoulder just in time to catch the nervous look on my face, and erupted into laughter once again. “You need to loosen up this morning, Richard Styner! Like I wouldn’t let you go and enjoy the festivities,” he chuckled with a twinkle in his eye. “I was also young once, shirking my duties to go drink and stare at the festival dancers in their shiny, skimpy outfits…”
“I just want to see the parade, old man!” I groaned, cutting him off before he could launch into one of his lengthy reflections on youth. “Not every apprentice is some kind of delinquent, you know.”
“Hmph!” Khufu scoffed with another one of his usual smirks. “You could stand to be a little more of a delinquent, Richard Styner! Don’t you ever get up in the morning and pray for a little fun?”
I let a bit of sarcastic piety enter my voice. “I pray for good fortune, good health, and good work. Surely a man of your age and wisdom does not wastefully beseech the gods for troublesome little whims?”
Khufu merely waggled his eyebrows, still grinning. “Maybe tomorrow I’ll beseech them to make you late for work. Now get going! The sun’s going to crest the Eastern wall any minute now!”
“Ah, goodness! You’re right!” Slightly shocked to see how much brighter the sky was, I bid my master a hasty goodbye and quickly vaulted into the chaos of the streets. Everyone was making last-minute preparations before the regally-decorated honor guards would come through to clear the way for the royal parade, which meant shoals of people were moving around both quickly and noisily.