All was quiet in the restaurant hall, it was around 8pm in the evening, and in spite of the rush hour, sprinting waiters, and an overcrowded atmosphere in general, people dining in the hall did not look frustrated or bothered at all. They were pretty much in their own essence.
All tables were occupied, people had their jackets resting on the backrest of their chairs for the supposedly chilly winter evening had turned out to be pretty warm and a lot less windy in this roof-top establishment. While I restlessly waited for my steak to arrive, an indistinct chirping caught my attention, I knew what it was, the real struggle was to locate it in this low-lit hall. My hands quickly reached my pocket to use the mobile flashlight, but that would grab too much attention, so I decided to randomly glance here and there hoping to hear the chirping again. A few seconds into this, I finally managed to locate the Gecko, it was an adult Hemidactylus on a wall ~15ft away from my table. It was peeking its head out from behind a photo frame. The placement of the photo frame right under a warm lamp somewhat indicated that like me, the gecko was waiting for its meal to arrive too. I wondered what insects come there, as it didn't look like a restaurant that would miss their regular pest control service.
As I dreamingly stared at the gecko, the couple sitting by the photo frame wall might have noticed me and wondered what in the world was so interesting that I couldn't look anywhere else. The discovery of a 10cm long, buffed scaly creature on the restaurant wall was followed by a loud, harsh squealing noise. The madam jumped off from her table pulled her purse in a jerk and couldn't stop wailing, the amplitude of her screech was enough to get all the heads turned and summon the manager of the restaurant in no time. The quiet atmosphere had suddenly turned into chaos and people sitting three tables away from the gecko had got off too. The manager became anxious as the pressure kept building up, more people were starting to become aware of this harmless creature lurking on the wall now. He had to do something, not taking any action meant bad reviews on the internet, less business, and eventually, getting laid off. A superhero waiter came to the rescue with a broomstick, he hesitantly handed over the stick to the manager who was kind of expecting the waiter to do the needful. The manager reluctantly reached out his hand with the broomstick on the other end and gently poked the photo frame, now what generally happens after this is that the gecko runs for its life and climbs higher on the wall, but not this fellow, it dived in the air, landed on the table freaking out each and every person in the room. The cashier watching the scene from the other corner of the hall was unprepared for this sudden change of events, he was equally scared as were the other people, despite being about 10m away from the epicenter of the chaos.
As I dreamingly stared at the gecko, the couple sitting by the photo frame wall might have noticed me and wondered what in the world was so interesting that I couldn't look anywhere else. The discovery of a 10cm long, buffed scaly creature on the restaurant wall was followed by a loud, harsh squealing noise. The madam jumped off from her table pulled her purse in a jerk and couldn't stop wailing, the amplitude of her screech was enough to get all the heads turned and summon the manager of the restaurant in no time. The quiet atmosphere had suddenly turned into chaos and people sitting three tables away from the gecko had got off too. The manager became anxious as the pressure kept building up, more people were starting to become aware of this harmless creature lurking on the wall now. He had to do something, not taking any action meant bad reviews on the internet, less business, and eventually, getting laid off. A superhero waiter came to the rescue with a broomstick, he hesitantly handed over the stick to the manager who was kind of expecting the waiter to do the needful. The manager reluctantly reached out his hand with the broomstick on the other end and gently poked the photo frame, now what generally happens after this is that the gecko runs for its life and climbs higher on the wall, but not this fellow, it dived in the air, landed on the table freaking out each and every person in the room. The cashier watching the scene from the other corner of the hall was unprepared for this sudden change of events, he was equally scared as were the other people, despite being about 10m away from the epicenter of the chaos.
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| A gecko minding its own business. |
The gecko took a rather swift landing on the table, thanks to its leaf-like toe pads. The amazing landing was definitely not followed by awe and applaud. Our beloved Gecko seemed to like the soft table cloth and was showing no signs of running back to the crack in the wall where it belonged. The manager and the staff, pretty convinced that they'll lose their job if they do nothing came up with a brutal solution to this petty problem. A waiter was called for with an insect-killing spray, everybody knew that the lizard shall now face capital punishment, for it did not comply with the manager, it was 'Bad table manners!". The lizard, unaware of its fate was nicely chilling on the soft table cloth as if it was its last day, indeed.
The waiter came - not running but he walked his way to the manager, very elegantly handed over the spray as if he was serving food to a VIP customer because he knew that he no longer possessed any threat from the lizard, he was far more superior than the creepy-crawly creature now that he had the poison spray in his hand. At this point, I knew I will have to interfere, I walked up to the manager, whispered in his ears, he looked away and gestured something to the waiters - all of them took a step backward. This was a green signal for me, it meant I can proceed with the "CRAZY" idea of mine which involved 100% fewer chances of any party's death than the former plan. The plan was pretty simple, I would go near the gecko, cup my palms and gently place them over the lizard's forebody, it will try to resist by trying to escape and then I would do a gentle head catch to calm the jiggling lizard. And it worked, operation "Save the Gecko" was a success. I took her out of everyone's sight and left it in the parking area of the building in which was a much safer environment for the gecko than the unfriendly people in the hall.
I went back, washed my hands, and enjoyed my steak. Oh, and did I mention the free dessert? Who knew this career field with "NO SCOPE", "NO MONEY" and "NO JOB GUARANTEE" would get me a free dessert.