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Spud Hut Counter Savant

The Spud Hut Counter Savant is an unnamed teenage worker at the original Spud Hut in Dahlonega, Georgia, who has perfect recall, keeps a cryptogram secret menu, and is eventually placed in a CIA job by Kurt.
Type NPC (unnamed)
Aliases counter kid; savant kid; savant worker; counter man; savant teen; grill-station savant
Affiliation Spud Hut; later CIA
Status Alive; given a CIA job by Kurt (as of Walkers 01)
First appearance Appalachia 02

Description

The savant is polite, brisk and slightly robotic, with hair slicked down by sweat and formal speech ("Next customer, please"). He recites about a hundred specials from memory, with no menu board anywhere. Dante's Kurt compared the Spud Hut to hiring the memory savant Kim Peek to remember the menu (Appalachia 02, Appalachia 07).

History

In Appalachia 02, at the Original Spud Hut, he recites the specials while the line behind him grows restless, and instantly names "the first one" (the Cobb salad spud) and "the twenty-third one" (the curry chicken spud). Kurt asks how many matchsticks he just dropped, and the boy answers "forty-three", which is exactly right. Kurt tells him to get out of there because his mind is an incredible gift, and the boy says, "I can't leave the Spud Hut. The Spud Hut changed my life." He later locks up and walks across the parking lot into the woods. See Spud Hut Menu.

In Appalachia 06 the counter kid has worked 793 days and recalls customers by order and date. Shown a photo of the dead man in the Chewbacca costume (see Troy Cleaver), he says the man came in on three occasions (four, nine and 25 days earlier), paid cash, wore a holster, had no ID in his wallet and arrived by ATV, and once appeared alongside a man in a business suit, though the two did not speak. Huell tests him with a coin flip, and he calls "tails" correctly. Asked about the man's gun, he answers, "I don't know about handguns. I haven't read that book yet." Kurt promises to get him out ("You will be hearing from Langley"), and compares him to the character in Rain Man. The kid replies that "Spud Hut saved my life".

In Appalachia 07 the counter man is again at the register. He reaches under the counter for a briefcase, unlocks it with two keys, and hands the team a sheet of handwritten cryptic symbols: "That is the menu. I designed the cryptogram myself." He asks Huell for ID before serving a margarita spud. The team sends the cryptogram to the NSA codebreakers, whom the CIA calls the "Puzzle Palace". See Cryptogram Secret Menu.

In Appalachia 09 Kurt remarks that Spud Hut has "a fucking polymath savant working at the goddamn Spud Hut grill station", and the animal handler Clive confirms he "knows the whole menu".

In Walkers 01, Dante says that in the weeks after the Georgia events Kurt made sure the savant teen from Spud Hut got a job at the CIA, "whether he likes it or not".

Memorable quotes

Quote

"Spud Hut saved my life." Andre (as the Spud Hut Counter Savant) (Appalachia 06)

Quote

"I don't know about handguns. I haven't read that book yet." Andre (as the Spud Hut Counter Savant) (Appalachia 06)

Quote

"That is the menu." Andre (as the Spud Hut Counter Savant) (Appalachia 07)

Appearances