Mary was busy at her stoves when they came back into the kitchen. She was checking the rib that was in the oven and stirring the things that were on top of the stoves. Most everything for the rest of the day was working and pretty soon she would be ready to chill.
Bea was cleaning up her station, changing the pots that the salad dressings were stored in, getting ready to replenish everything that Marie would need for the dinner. If the dinner meal was like the lunch, they were going to be busy. For waitresses, being busy was great. For the owner, being busy was great. Kitchen help made the same money slow or busy. Overall good business for the cooks was good because the size of their year-end bonus was based upon gross sales.
Marie came in at four. She was wearing a dress, something she rarely did, and she was wearing dark glasses. To Bill, who saw her first when she stopped in to say hello, she looked like a ragamuffin, so skinny that the dress hung straight down on her as if she had no shape. Another time, other circumstances, she could have passed for a crackhead.
Bill wondered what was with the dark glasses. He wondered if her husband had hit her, but she dispelled that notion quickly when she took them off.
“No, he didn’t hit me,” she said before he could say anything. “He didn’t come home till this afternoon, just before I had to leave for here. He didn’t even say hello to the kids. He just went straight off to bed. I’d be pissed if I wasn’t glad. That’s messed up, huh?”
Bill thought of his own circumstance at home last night and said, “Nah.”
Marie passed on down the line and went over to her station where Bea was working. “I need anything from downstairs?” she asked.
“Nah,” said Bea. “I got everything done. You’re all set except you could make a tray of setups for the hamburgers.”
“Pies and everything taken care of?”
“Yeah, all the salads and all the desserts. You can go hang out with your boy downstairs,” Bea said, almost as if she were instigating.
“Well, I’ll be up in a few then.” Marie did an about face and walked back through the line. She stopped mid-way where she could see to the back and called hello to Mary. When she heard Mary return the hello, she headed on past Bill, out the kitchen door and down the stairs.
Just a moment after she was gone, the meat delivery arrived. Bill heard the horn, then the driver appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. Bill said hello and told him he’d be right with him.
Mary had heard the horn too. She saw the driver hanging at the doorway. She walked around to the line to see what Bill was up to, which was really nothing more than setting up the steam table for which he’d already brought over the inserts. She told him go on down and let Henry Lee know, that she would put on the baked potatoes and finish setting up the steam table. Bill acknowledged her with a nod and went on down.
On his way to the meat room, Bill opened the door to the staff ladies’ bathroom. Marie was in her bra and slip, just starting to put on her kitchen dress.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Fine,” Marie said. She smiled at Bill. “We can talk later when it’s quiet.”
In the meat room, Bill told Henry Lee the delivery was there. Henry Lee was getting ready to cut short loins. They didn’t always serve T-Bones and club steaks, but they ran them as specials most of the time. Henry Lee was cutting them for the next day and they were running them on the weekend too. He carted the two loins he had out on his table back into the walk-in and set up the scale to weigh the meat.
