Challenge #02438-F248: A Perfectly Normal Chip-shop Keeper

Too many of the one name so, Evans the milk, Evans the bread and Evans the dragon, nice man, doesn't play Rugby though. -- Anon Guest

There's always an Evans family in any given village in Wales. Often, there's more than one Evans family in any given location in Wales. It's a very popular surname. In order to distinguish Evanses apart, there are associated eke names. Additional surnames, sur-surnames if you will. You get names like Evans the Milk - the Evans who works as a milkman; Evans the Brick - the Evans who works as a bricklayer; Evans the Spark - the Evans who works as an electrician; and Evans the Drive - the Evans who works as a taxi driver.

You get a lot of that in Wales.

In the little mountainside town of Cilfachgorsaf-ddefaid there are so many Evanses that they have an Evans the Dragon. He works in a chip shop and is one of those people who've been there forever. Well. Just about everyone who lives there has been there all their lives, but... Evans the Dragon has somehow been there longer.

He knows the old Evanses who have long since retired. He knows the young Evanses and their families. He knows everyone, even the lost tourists who stumbled across it on their way to some summer festival and have never set foot in Ireland before. He has an easy smile and has seemingly met the entire world's whole family.

Everyone agrees he's a very nice man. Nobody at all is certain how old he is. Nobody has asked why he's never in the town-wide rugby games. He's just always in his chip shop and seems to know what you want to buy there when you happen to wander in. In fact, there's your exact order fresh out of the deep fryer as you walk in. It would be spooky, except the people who live there are so used to it that they don't question it.

Just like they never ask why he's called Evans the Dragon.

Never mind how close you enter to opening hours, when other chip shops are still warming up the coconut oil, Evans the Dragon has his hot and ready, as well as your order fresh out of the fryer for you. Of course, with a name like that, there is some jocular speculation regarding his actual draconic nature. But it's never more than a joke.

Actual Dragons alive and well in modern Wales? That was ridiculous. There had to be another reason for the sur-surname.

Pity nobody can tell what that is.

[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / MarkUK97]

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