Bill didn’t respond to Jim. This had become a sore spot, a bother, even a small worry that stuck sometimes in the back of Bill’s mind. Jim had been kicked in the head by a horse and was never right since. He always wanted that beer. He could never have it. Sometimes he hovered over and lingered by that knife sheath when he said something about that beer. This was the concern, that he would go off and grab a knife.
After Mary, Bea and Henry Lee had left, Bill sat on the milk cases. He stayed there as long as he could. He wasn’t inclined to get up. He didn’t want to do anything. He felt weary, and having felt this way before, he knew none of his drugs could do anything for him. So he sat. He smoked a cigarette. He drank a coffee that Lorraine had brought him when she’d stopped out in the hall. Lorraine, having seen how droopy he was, asked if he was okay. He said he was just tired, very tired.
He was on a second coffee when the orders started coming in. He asked Jimmy what he had when he saw Jimmy reading the first dupe. Jimmy told him stay sitting so Bill watched from the doorway where he’d positioned the cases so he could see what was going on. He could see the line and the pantry station past it. He could also see a little of the area before the line, this through the serving shelves. He couldn’t see the front kitchen door, but he could hear it open, and he could see the waitresses going into the pantry’s reach-in for salad dressings. When he saw a third order come in he got up. He hadn’t actually planned on it, but kind of instinctively he reached into his pants pocket and took out a Black Beauty. He popped it in his mouth and took it down with some coffee.
Bill and Jimmy started into their dance. They had four dupes, three deuces and a trey. Bill worked the broiler and cut the one order for prime rib. The rib looked really inviting and he was inclined to cut a slice for himself which he decided he’d do when they cleared the board. But they never cleared the board and even before seven, which was unusual, Tommy was in the kitchen setting up the expediter’s spot and calling orders.
Tommy called the orders straight through until Lillian relieved him. Amidst the steady, somewhat heavy but not excessive flow, Lorraine brought coffees for Bill and Tommy. Victoria brought sodas for the dishwashers. Marie made her own tea and kept herself busy on her station.
Lillian drew up her stool and Tommy showed her what was what. That done, he left the kitchen to check on the front of the house. In the switch over, Lillian had collected a handful of orders and soon as Tommy was gone she bellowed out her first “Ordering.” It was a string of items, one after the next, steaks and prime rib, fried shrimp and onion rings, two fried chicken for Grandma and a chef’s salad and shrimp salad for Marie.
The voice contrast and melody pattern was stunning. Tommy was quiet and sing-song. Lillian was raspy, sharp staccato and harsh. Bill, for his part, took over as much as he could, pushing Lillian to pick up as he wanted, as he needed. Lillian was less accommodating than Tommy or Drenovis, so Bill had to be more insistent.
On it went through the service, busy and rushed but not overly burdensome until the first lull after which, thinking it might all be over, they got positively slammed.
