“Come on everybody, the dinner for the guests, and most of all the King, needs to be wonderful!” screamed Palo Ortega. He is the head chef at Risna Kingdom. The whole Kingdom loved his cooking. Chef Palo smelled the soup that Chef Thomas made. “It needs more basil. Work with me people! Don’t forget, we are making this for the King and Queen.”

“Relax, everything will be fine.” Chef Thomas said calmly. 

“No, it won’t be okay, it just won’t!” Chef Palo stomped away with anger. 

“Okay, sorry,” he mumbled.

The waiter quickly walked in and said,”The King is getting mad, so you better get the food to him as fast as possible.” His face looked worried. 

“Let’s bring out the soup now so the King does not throw a fit,” Chef Palo said calmly. “Bring out the soup!” A cart rolled out of the floppy kitchen doors while the King’s eyes tracked the pot as it rolled. 

The waiter took a ladle and carefully stuck his arm in the pot and poured the soup into a clear glass bowl. He had a spoon in his hand ready to try the soup. The King had a straight face. His eyes drooped down to the glass bowl. 

The Queen put a smile on her face ready for her delicious treat. “Your dinner is served,” Chef Palo said as he gulped. The waiter slid another bowl of soup infront of the Queen. 

The King just sat in his chair staring at the soup. “Come on and eat darling,” the Queen grinned. His hand moved slowly toward the bowl. The King took a bite, and the room grew silent.

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The King had a smile on his face. “Yeah!” everyone in the room cheered. Chef Palo’s nervous grin turned into a wonderful happy face. He started to dance around in a circle and chained arms with others. 

“Wait!” the King yelled across the dinning room. Every single person was quiet. He stared at Chef Palo. 

“It’s okay,” Chef Palo interrupted while grinning. “I still have 15 more dishes to give you. All of the other Chefs scattered back into the kitchen. Once they came out, they were each carrying a different plate of food. 

“WAIT!” the King screamed even louder. Everyone froze again while staring at the King. “I’m sorry Palo, but you are just too much for me to handle. I need a chef that does not beyond what is expected. That is why I am firing you, and making Chef Thomas the main chef.” Chef Palo stared at Chef Thomas while he grinned. “Please pack your belongings and leave Risna Kingdom.”

“But I don—,” the King cut him off.

“NOW!” Chef Palo followed his order. He left the dinning room with a glum look. 

“Dear, don’t you think you were a little to hard on hi,” the Queen whispered looking a bit sad.

“No. I know what I was doing, and I will not take it back. It is best for us anyway because we are not fond of him. Maybe it will be best for him too,” the King replied with his eyebrows curved diagonally. 

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Palo moped as he walked up the stairs. He was walking slowly to absorb his last moments in Risna Kingdom. His black hair did not reveal his teary green eyes. Palo started to pack his bag. He walked out of the castle doors and paused. He turned around and a tear dropped down his face. Instantly, he wiped it with his arm. Now what was he going to do? His life long dream has finally ended. He might never get another opportunity like that one. 

Palo arrived at the dock so he could take the next boat to his mother’s house. “At least she will like my cooking.” Palo said under his breath. There was a huge boat that had people boarding it. A man was standing on the boat ringing a bell. 

“All aboard!” he yelled across the dock. Palo realized that this must have been his boat. He took his suitcase and hopped up the ramp onto the boat. Right when Palo set foot on the ship, the captain greeted him by giving him a nice. “Hello and welcome. I will be your captain for today, so we might as well meet each other,” he said with a grin. “I’m Maxwell Rowenson.” Palo stood still, there was a slight pause. “And your name is?”

“Oh yeah, I’m Palo Ortega.”

“Nice to meet you Palo.”

“You too . . . Wait what is your name again?”

“Maxwell Rowenson.”

“You too Maxwell.” Palo walked away looking down because he felt embarrassed. He took a seat and put his suitcase down. Palo took a glimpse at the amazing scenery. The view was the best thing he has seen today. The sun was setting and it included many shades of blue, orange, and red.

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The next day Palo was going to turn over a new leaf. Finally, the ship arrived at shore. Palo grabbed his suitcase, and left immediately. Once he got off the boat there was nothing infront of him but sand. It looked like the sand would go on for miles. “This does not look like my mother’s village. Wait a second, that’s because it isn’t.” Palo abruptly turned around and realized the boat was departing the dock. “Wait! Please!” I don’t know where I am! Please help me!” Palo kept running. Then he got to the point where he could not take it anymore. 

Palo had all, but given up hope. “What am I going to do now?” he said. “I might as well walk a little bit to see if I can find anything else besides sand. He started to walk on the sand while the sun was beaming down on him.

                       

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Palo became really tired and had no clue where he was. It felt like he had been walking for ages. He was worn down and sweaty. His feat were so sweaty, his feet were like a magnet to the sand. Suddenly, Palo came across a broken gate. He pushed it open and walked through it slowly. Now he was in no rush. There were very few houses. They were all colored brown. Some people were sleeping on the streets. Most of all, there was dead silence. Clearly this village had no personality at all. 

Suddenly, a boy ran up to Palo He looked abut 12 years old. “Hi, welcome to Oasis. You must be here to stay, we have not had a vi—” The boy sounded excited, but Palo had to cut him off.

“Actually, I’m not here to stay.” The boy’s face turned from happy, to sad. “I was just going to ask where I was, and how far from anywhere I am.” 

“You are miles away from anywhere. That’s why this village is called Oasis.”

     

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“Oh I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Joseph Eastman, the son of the Mayor of Oasis.” the boy said. 

“Good to know. I’m Palo Ortega. I use to be the Top Chef at Risna Kingdom. Cooking for the King and Queen was my specialty.”

“Interesting.” Joseph started to walk away.

“Wait where are you going!?” Palo yelled out to him. 

“Well aren’t you leaving?” Joseph asked.

“Actually, do you have enough space for me to stay a few days? I have no where else to go,” Palo admitted.

“Of course, but first answer this question. Why are you here if you have an amazing job as a chef at Risna Kingdom?”

“Well I got fired.” Palo said looking down at the ground looking while kicking a rock near his foot. 

“Can you tell me why?”

“Sure, whatever. The King said I go way over the top with my cooking.” Palo blushed. His cheeks were the color of red rose petals.

“That’s why. Wow.” Joseph chuckled a bit. “The King must be pretty picky.”

“I’ll say,” Palo agreed.

Anyway, we have plenty of room for you to stay. Trust me,” Joseph said happily. Palo wondered why Oasis was so empty, and how it got the name. They started to walk. 

“Why is this village called Oasis, and why is it so empty?” Palo could not resist to ask. 

“Well, it is called Oasis because we are miles and miles away from anything, but sand. Also, Oasis is empty because no one knows we exist. As a result, people don’t come. Oh, and by the way, do you mind if I take you to see my father?”

“No, not at all.”

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Knock, knock, knock, “Father are you there?” Joseph tapped his door. 

“Not right now son, I’m doing work,” Mayor Eastman said with his glasses pushed all the way down to the tip of his nose. 

“But father, we finally have a person that wan— that needs to stay in Oasis.”

Once Mayor Eastman heard those words, he got up right away and said, ”Well let me meet the guy.” Joseph walked through the door followed by Palo. Palo waved at the Mayor. With a crooked smile the Mayor said, “Please sit down. You are welcome anytime in Oasis. Wait here a second, while I talk to Joseph alone.” 

Palo watched as they walked to the corner. It looked as if Joseph was telling his father everything Palo had said. Clearly, he wanted to find out everything Joseph knew about Palo.

“Well it is nice to meet you Palo.” Mayor Eastman shook his hand nonstop. “Why don’t we give you a tour, even though there is not much to see.” Mayor Eastman took the lead as Palo and Joseph followed. “The first house is ours because we have to be close to the office.”

Suddenly, a woman walked straight out of the brownish-white little house. “Dear, why are you out of the office so early?” She was holding a cup of steaming tea, Palo was not vivid to the woman until he walked away from behind Mayor Eastman. “Oh my goodness!” The woman flipped. 

“Yes, yes. We finally have someone who wants to stay in Oasis.”

“Hi there. I’m Jenny, but you can just call me Mrs. Eastman. It’s wonderful to meet you. 

“I’m Palo Ortega.” He tipped his hat. “Top Chef.”

 

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“Moving on,” Mayor Eastman said rolling his eyes. You are our first visitor in a long time.”

“People use to come here?” Palo asked with his eyebrows curved. 

“We were once the hot spot.” He became sad. “Everyone loved Oasis. It is a bit hard to believe, but we were known for our great foods.” 

“Now many people don’t find Oasis appealing anymore,” said Joseph.

  “I can see that.” Palo muttered under his breath.

“What did you say?” Joseph asked.

“Oh, I said how did Oasis get to be this way. Didn’t you say that people liked coming here?” Palo asked stumbling word after word.

“One day there was a man who barged into Oasis. He was telling everyone how bad we were. He only said bad things about Oasis which were not true at all.” Mayor Eastman became sad. 

“Why would he do that?”

“Well, after that happened, we discovered that he was a Mayor of another village, and he was jealous of us. He wanted all of these people to come to his town. Soon everyone believed him, and our popularity slowly faded.

“Wow,” Palo said absorbing the story and taking a deep breath.

“Father,” Joseph said “go on with the tour its getting late.”

“Oh that’s right.” He forgot. “Ah, now we have Claudia Chase’s house. She is an extremely sweet girl.” His smile did not wipe off his face until he got to the house Palo was staying in. Palo walked toward the door with his luggage. “Not so fast, we are not done with the tour.” Wow he is a real talking machine Palo thought. 

“Wait can I quickly drop off my suitcase so my arm does not break.”

“Fine, but make it quick because we have to get a move on.” the Mayor said.

“Okay,” Palo retorted.  He just wanted to get away from him for a few minutes. He was a nice guy though. Palo walked up the stairs with his luggage. It was so heavy, it felt like his arm was about to fall off. All of his cooking tools were in there, but that was not all. Many different foods were in there too. Once Palo reached the second floor, he threw his suitcase on the squeaky bed and looked out the window. He saw Mayor Eastman waving to tell him to come down. Joseph was just staring at the brown grass on the ground. 

Mayor Eastman went on with the tour, but Palo was not even listening. He was making faces with Joseph the whole time, which made it go really fast. Even though he did not want to  pay any attention to the faces, Palo thought it was better than listening to Mayor Eastman.

 

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The next day Palo woke up in his rough squeaky bed. Palo’s back was hurting like crazy because his bed was as hard as a rock. He looked out the window. There was no one there except the bum sleeping on the street. “At least it is quieter than Mayor Eastman talking,” Palo said to himself. Birds were not even chirping outside. 

Palo grabbed his jacket and left his house. He noticed a little restaurant with one person inside. He walked through the door and saw a girl who looked like a chef sitting at a table by herself. She was tapping her fingers on the table. “Why are you here?” she suddenly said not even turning around. Palo paused. 

“Um well, I just wanted to take a look around.” Then a question popped into his head. “Are you the chef here?”

“Yeah I am, but I don’t need to work because no one ever comes.” This town needs a lot of help, he thought. Palo was about to walk out of the restaurant until the chef said something. “Wait!” she abruptly said. “My name is Liza. I just cannot believe I stayed here in Oasis. There is nothing for me to do,” she sighed. 

Suddenly, another girl slowly walked in. She was wearing brown sandals with a green and pink skirt. She had a blue T-shirt that matched her eyes perfectly. Her hair was a silky black. “Sir, sir, SIR!?!?” Liza yelled trying to get Palo’s attention. Palo was staring at the girl, but he snapped right back to Liza. “This is Claudia.”

“H-h-hi Claudia,” he stumbled. “I’m Palo.”

“Are you okay?” Liza asked. Claudia waved her hand in his face. 

“Oh, I am good as ever. I should get going now.”

“Bye.” Claudia said with a sweat voice. Palo quickly left and thought what an idiot he was infront of her. 

Palo started to realize that food might be a way to make everyone happy. He ran home and took out a book of recipes. Palo flipped through the pages that had a simple dish of food. Penne in Vodka Sauce. It took him 30 minutes to make. 

He ran to Mayor Eastman’s house. Maybe his tour was a bit useful. He rang the rusty doorbell. Joseph quickly opened the door. “Oh, hi Palo.”

“Hi Joseph, I made Penne in Vodka Sauce for your family to have for dinner. It’s to thank you for letting me stay in Oasis.”

“Yes! Now we can finally have a great dinner. And by the way,  Penne in Vodka Sauce is my father’s favorite!”

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The next day, Palo went back to the same restaurant, but no one was inside. There was a note on the door. It said, Going out of business if anyone cares. There is no one else to help make food, and if someone did, there would be no customers. - The lonely Chef, Liza. I have to think of a way to bring this town back to life. Palo thought. He took the note off of the door so no one else would read it. He ran over to Liza’s house. He saw that she was packing her suitcase. Palo leaned against the door and waved the note around so it made that clicking noise. “Oh, hi Palo,” she said nonchalantly. “It looks like you have read the note already. There is more to add. I am leaving Oasis.”

“Where will you go?”

“Anywhere else, but here,” she sighed and sat on her bed. “There is nothing to do. All I ever wanted was to pursue my dream by becoming a famous cook. Clearly, staying here isn’t helping.” Liza stood up, packing more of her clothes in the suitcase. Palo quickly closed it before she could put another set of shirts inside. 

“Look, what if we can change Oasis. Change it to make it better,” Palo suggested. 

“How would we be able to do that?” she asked.

“Maybe more people would be in the mood to eat your wonderful food,” he said with a big smile on his face. “with my help.” Liza thought for a second. She looked up at Palo,

“Maybe we can.” Liza said slowly.

“But first, you better start unpacking your bag.” Liza nodded her head and Palo left her alone.

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Liza met Palo early in the morning to make signs about the big feast that was going to take place in two days. They needed way more help than just themselves. “Palo are you strong?” Liza asked.

“Yeah. Why?”

“Okay, go to Claudia’s house. Here are her keys.”

“Wait, why do you have her keys?”

“That’s a different story. Run to her house and get her out of bed. I will tell her what she will do when she gets here.” Palo shrugged and ran to Claudia’s house. He quickly put the key in the lock. He was confused as to which room Claudia slept in. He finally found it, picked her up and ran outside. She abruptly woke up in his arms. 

“What are you doing? You can’t just take me out of my house.”

“We need you. Liza will explain everything when we get to the restaurant.” As Palo jogged to the next block, he put Claudia down. “The restaurant is around the corner.”

“Wow, you are strong,” Claudia said in amazement. At that moment, Palo saw her eyes sparkle. They were staring at each other while smiling. Love was obviously in the air. When they reached the corner Liza saw them.

“Come on! There is no time for romance right now. Let’s get to work!”

 

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“Here’s what you are going to do Claudia. You are going to make posters, signs, and flyers for the entire town. Be creative. Understand?

“Yeah. Now lets go!” Claudia started to stare at Palo in a loving way. Liza had to push her away in order for her to get started.

“Well I was hoping we can make some Italian dishes for the feast. They are simple. Don’t worry I have them all in this cook book.” While it took Liza and Palo hours to make multiple dishes, Claudia was handing out flyers to the rest of the town. When she first started to deliver them, Claudia went directly to Mayor Eastman. If there was anyone to please first, it was Mayor Eastman. 

When she arrived at his office, she barged right in breathing heavily. “Why hello Claudia, how nice to see you. It has been a long time since your last visit,” Mayor Eastman said with his one of a kind smile.

“Yea, hi. Um, would you like to come to the big feast in two days? There will be loads of food. And you are not the only one invited. The whole village is. I need to spread the word, and fast,” said Claudia. 

“Wow I would love to come. I assume that Liza is the one who is preparing this.”

“No. Palo is really the main person behind this.” 

“I’m impressed. Palo just got here and the young man is already doing something big.” Claudia gave Mayor Eastman a flyer. Then she disappeared into the fog.     

 

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Palo and Liza were going to cook until their arms came off. They were not going to let Oasis down. For the feast they were making Italian food. Hopefully, the town will like there food. Palo and Liza made Tortelli of Potato, which includes potatoes, Parmigiano-Reggiano, chives, eggs, nutmeg, basic pasta dough, sage, brown butter, and lemon. There was als Tortellini with Goat Chese and Scallions. This dish included goat cheese, scallions, eggs, nutmeg, Parmigiano-R

eggiano, salt, pepper, chicken stock, and basic pasta dough. There were so much  more, so do not think these were the only two dishes.

 

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Finally the day of the feast was here. Dish after dish lined up on each table. Claudia took Palo outside before everyone came. “Wow Palo, this looks fantastic, all thanks to you.” Claudia smiled. Her eyes lit up with the stars in the night sky. 

“Thanks Claudia! You know you helped too. We could not have done this without you.” Palo complimented. They started getting closer to each other. Suddenly, a kiss laid upon Palo’s lips. 

“What a romantic moment, but you guys should not be kissing right now.” Liza sounded calm. “We have a feast in four minutes!”changing tones by suddenly shouting. Claudia and Palo abruptly moved away from each other as if nothing ever happened. Palo walked back into the restaurant waving at Claudia. She waved back. 

Mayor Eastman was the first one there. “I hope you don’t mind son, but I have told all of my friends and they wanted to come to the feast too.” Palo looked out the door, and there were so many people waiting outside. He gulped. 

“That’s great, bring them in.” Palo said. All the people piled into the tiny restaurant. As soon as they were seated they started eating. 

 

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Once everyone was done their mouths dropped open. “Well,” one man said “that was amazing!” Palo was breathless. As everyone left they thanked Palo for the wonderful dinner. Mayor Eastman was the last one in the restaurant with Palo and Liza. He wiped his mouth with his napkin. He placed his hand on Palo’s shoulder. “Palo, you could be famous!”

“Than—” Palo got cut off.

“ But you have to make the right decisions.” That was all Mayor Eastman said. Then he left. What did he mean by that? Palo thought . . .