I sat down just as Michael re-entered the room.
We celebrated his sixtieth birthday last week and the week before that we celebrated his partial retirement. He didn’t have his usual lengthy client list at the doctor’s surgery he owned, he filtered those patients to two new doctors he had recently hired. He only went into work on days when things were very busy and, luckily for him, those days were few. This meant he got to spend a great deal of time taking care of my mum, which put my mind at ease for the times when I could not be there.
“Was she bathed today?” I asked Michael. “It doesn’t look like her hair has been washed.”
“She was going to be but that’s when the episode happened with the nurses,” he explained. “They’ll try again later, she’s much more mellow in the evenings and lets them take care of her without much of a fuss.”
I was about to speak when my phone rang from inside of my bag. I hurriedly took it out, saw the call was from my boss, Joe, and sighed before I answered it.
“Hi, Joe.”
“Kid, I’m sorry to call you on your day off, but is there any way you could come in and help us? Tiffany finishes at lunch to go and take her kid to the dentist, Deena is here but I don’t know what’s going on, we have more people in for lunch than she can handle.”
I lifted my hand to the bridge of my nose.
“The twins aren’t around?”
“Their phones are off.”
Typical.
“Okay,” I relented. “I’ll be there in thirty, forty minutes at most. I’m visiting Mum.”
“I’m sorry, kid. I wouldn’t call if I had someone else to cover the shift.”
“Don’t worry about it, Joe. See you soon.”
I hung up and looked at Michael.
“Joe’s run off his feet at the diner, he needs another waitress.”
“Go,” Michael said. “She’ll be sleepin’ for a couple of hours yet.”
I nodded, leaned over and kissed Mum’s cheek, then rounded the bed and did the same to Michael. “I’ll call you later. Love you.”
“Love you to, little.”
I smiled as I left the room.
I spent the next thirty-five minutes rushing home so I could change into my uniform and get into work as soon as I could. When I showed up at the diner, Joe wasn’t lying. The place was packed with people. I didn’t have a chance to properly greet Deena, or Joe, as I jumped straight into taking orders, serving orders, then making milkshakes and desserts for those who requested them. Hours ticked by until the storm of customers had died down enough so Deena could clock off early to pick up her kids from her parents and visit her husband who’d had foot surgery the day before. It was near closing time by the time I felt like I could think straight.
“Frankie, order’s up!”
I sat back on my heels, placed my hands on my hips and, with a tired puff of air, I blew strands of auburn hair that had escaped my hair tie out of my face. I wasn’t sure what ached worse, my feet or my back. I grabbed the bucket beside me and tossed the rags I’d been using to clean the base of one of the corner booths into it. Not too long ago, some kid had been running with a chocolate milkshake in his hands and when he tripped the shake went everywhere.
I had been the sorry sucker charged with cleaning it up.
I stood up and softly groaned when my back clicked in protest. I rubbed the base of my spine before I grabbed the bucket and walked through the door that led into the kitchen. I placed the bucket in its designated spot, then headed back out front. When I was in front of the hatch that gave all the customers a partial view of the kitchen, I picked up the two plates of freshly made-to-order food. I checked the table they were for and headed in that direction.
“Here we go,” I smiled at the teenage boy and girl who looked up upon my arrival. “A double cheeseburger with everything on it and extra chips?”
“That’s mine,” the boy chirped.
He eagerly rubbed his hands together and eyed the plate like it was his very life force. I placed his food in front of him then with the other dish, I placed it in front of the girl.
“Can I get you both anything else? More drinks?”
“No, thank you,” the pair said in unison.
“If you need anything, just give me a shout.”
I glanced around the diner and when I saw I had no other customers I walked back towards the kitchen. Once inside I leaned against one of the counters, applying weight onto my hands, just to take some pressure off my throbbing feet. I had been working for nine hours straight, since I came in at one, and couldn’t recall sitting down once during the day. Things were so hectic that I had no other choice except to work through my breaks. I had one hour left on my surprise shift and I had never willed time to go faster in my entire life.
“This has been the longest shift in existence,” I proclaimed. “And the most uncomfortable, my bloody feet are throbbing. My back is hurting too and my back never hurts.”
Joseph Reeves, the owner and chef of Mary Well’s diner, grunted in agreement.
“Lunch hour was a nightmare,” he said as he cleaned down one of his worktops with a cloth. “I haven’t seen things that busy since the circus was in town a couple of months ago. It’s winter, I wonder what has so many tourists in town.”
I folded my arms across my chest and fought off a yawn.
“I’ve been wondering that too.” I rolled my shoulders to stretch them out. “I had half a mind to ask people if something was going on, but I was too busy seating everyone and taking orders to get around to it. It was like a madhouse.”
“I saw.” Joe’s lips twitched, and that was as much as a smile as anyone could ever get out of him. “You were like a headless chicken running back and forth, Deena too. Best entertainment I’ve had in a while so thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” I snorted. “I’m just glad we made it through it.”
“I know,” he agreed. “The one day we’re overwhelmed with customers and only three of us are working.”
“I’m still pissed about that,” I scowled. “And not for a second do I believe it wasn’t done on purpose by the twins.”
The two other waitresses at Mary Well’s were Anna and Hannah Porter. They were twin sisters and where there was one, there was the other. When they weren’t working, and sometimes when they were working, they had their phones glued to their hands so for the pair of them to have their phones switched off was suspicious. I had known both girls for years, I was a year ahead of them in school. Since phones and social media became a massive thing, I had never known either sister to have a blackout from both.
They disconnected their phones on purpose, I was sure of it.
“The upside is,” Joe winked, “you get to keep the rest of the tips since Deena already got her cut before she left for the day.”
The tip jar had had to be emptied into the collection bag two times after Deena left, and one of those times was because I couldn’t stuff any more notes into the jar. As crazy as the day had been for service, it had been incredible for tips. There was no doubt about that. I never expected tips, but when I got them, it put a smile on my face. Today’s tip load would have me grinning from ear to ear for the next week.