[image description: A black and white illustration set against a stormy sky. A huge hamburger careen
[image description: A black and white illustration set against a stormy sky. A huge hamburger careens into tall ketchup and mustard containers. The collision causes both containers to shoot their contents skyward. Text reads, “109, The Hindenburger, The Small God of Jersey Diners.”]• • • • • It’s okay if you don’t want a burger. Jonesy don’t mind. Jonesy don’t mind that it’s not his name on the sign these days, either. Used to be. Used to be Jonesy’s was where you went for the best coffee in the world, hot and bitter and so old it had seen the rise o’ empires, good with or without cream and sugar.All right, maybe Jonesy minds a little. But he knows the gig. Before the place was Jonesy’s, it was Ethel’s, and she’s still here, dishing pancakes and fries and smiling at her regulars like she still owns the place. See, the gods who work here, we don’t disappear when our ascension ends. We don’t go nowhere. Got nowhere to go. We diminish a little, maybe, so we’ll fit better behind the counter, but that’s about as far as it gets.Once you’re hired, you’re hired from now until eternity. So consider that, sweetheart, before you go filling out that application. We’re always short-staffed, but might be as you wanted to see something else before you went back into the primeval subconscious and became part of the divinity soup again. Might be as you didn’t want to stop here, cutting ambrosia pie and flipping burgers until the stars burn out and we close out the final check.That one’s going to be for us. Soon as our jobs are done, all the Heavens are fed, all the believers are gone, we’ll sit down to whatever we want, finest in the cosmos, everything perfect and just the way we want it. We’ll sit on those vinyl seats and laugh in that neon glow, and we’ll be a family, no matter whose name is on the sign when that day comes. Might still be mine. Might be yours. Might be someone entirely new. Won’t know until we get there.But just listen to old Hinderburger. We got the best grill this side of Tartarus, and name aside, nothing we serve here is ever burned.That’s a promise.• • • • • Join Lee Moyer (Icon) and Seanan McGuire (Story) Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for a guide to the many small deities who manage our modern world:Tumblr: https://smallgodseries.tumblr.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/smallgodseriesInstagram: https://instagram.com/smallgodseries/Homepage: http://smallgodseries.com -- source link