He popped the black beauties as he drove to work. He had not gotten any sleep at all, but this was not the first time he’d pulled an all-nighter. Being young had its advantages and being able to stay awake all night was one of them. Of course the drugs helped, and he had enough drugs to last for as long as he needed them to.
Mary, Bea and Tommy were waiting in the parking lot when he got there. He was not late at all, was right on time, and as per the usual, he saw them getting out of their cars when they saw him pulling into the parking lot. If it had been him there already, as soon as the last person arrived he would have been getting out of his car.
So there they were lined up at the front door while Tommy opened it with his keys. Bill was standing behind Mary who was standing next to Bea. As they waited, he reached up and pinched Mary on her behind under her coat.
“Ain’t you got nothing better to do?” she asked.
“Not really.”
“You could pinch me,” Bea said.
“I don’t need to hear this,” Tommy said. “I don’t need to hear it, I don’t want to hear it and you’d all be better off if none of it was happening.” Just before he opened the door he turned back toward them and said, “Mark my words.”
They walked through the hall and did what they always did. Bill shut down the burglar alarm. Bea and Mary went into the kitchen, turned on the lights and put down their things. Bea started to make coffee right away in the small Bunn machine. Mary went around back to her station and read the notice board, a standard cork board with pushpins. The menus were posted there as were any notes she had left for herself. When she came back around to the line she asked Bill if prime rib had been left over. Bill told her yes but they still had to cook one. He said he’d check downstairs when they got down there to see if a round needed to be cut.
Before they went down the stairs, the coffee dripping in the coffee machine, Bill flipped on the exhaust fans. The kitchen woke up immediately. There was a groan, a hum, a squeal almost like a loose fan belt on a car when it was being started, and then the exhaust fans kicked in, droned and polluted the air with its heavy noise.
With the exhaust fans running, Bill turned on the Garland. He opened the grease drawer to make sure it was empty, which it was because he had emptied it himself. Then he looked up into the mesh squares which were the filters for the exhaust fans. They seemed pretty clean. They were professionally washed once a week.
Downstairs, Bill went straight to the meat room. He checked inside the walk-in to see that Henry Lee had left a round already cut. All he had to do was cart that big chunk of meat up the stairs.
When he returned to the linen room, before he actually got to it, Bea tossed him a uniform. He saw Mary reaching in to get herself a kitchen dress. Then he watched as she began stripping, Bea too. In a few quick moments, both Bea and Mary had hung up their coats and stripped down to bare feet and underclothes. Mary wore a white slip and a white bra. Big as she was, Bea wore full old-lady drawers and a bra fuller than Mary’s.
Carrying his uniform as he’d caught it, a smile on his face, Bill stepped up to them. He kissed Bea on the bare skin of her breasts, first one then the other. He kissed Mary on her lips then he reached down, lifted up her slip and kissed her on her white panties.
Mary slapped him upside the head.
