We plan. God laughs.
They muddled through the rest of the morning a bit awkwardly, but mostly smoothly. Bea was still standoffish, perpetually pissed off. Mary was somewhat content. Bill did his best to concentrate on work, but the acid was starting to come on and that drew him away from everything.
He did his job by rote. Henry Lee came in on time and as soon as he could get away from upstairs Bill went down to hang out in the meat room, to cut some meat and make the hamburgers and bleus.
They drank bourbon and smoked weed. They drank more bourbon and just before they came up to do the service, they smoked more weed.
Bill had washed the baking potatoes and put them on to cook. First thing he did when he and Henry Lee came up from the meat room was to check them, and seeing that they were ready to take out he did so like he always did, two in each hand at a time and directly into a steam table insert which he covered with aluminum foil.
Mary had set up the steam table. Normally Bill would do this, but since he was tripping she felt he was better off downstairs and told him she would do it. Almost everything was in place by 11:30 and so Bill only had to make the trips downstairs to carry up what was needed. As a result of it being somewhat slow and their usual efficiency, they were done early and were able to congregate out in the hall where Bill and Henry Lee smoked cigarettes and Bea sat on her lettuce cases which were now a little bit diminished in height.
Two new girls had started and were following the regulars. One was named Lily. The other was named Brooklyn. In almost every sense they were kind of opposites.
Brooklyn was short, maybe five-one, and very trim, maybe one hundred pounds soaken wet. She had dark hair cut short, Italian-colored skin, and Bill surmised after she spoke her first few words that she was probably from where she was named.
Lily was clearly Midwestern or something like that. She was taller, maybe five-six. She was trim but not thin, maybe a hundred-twenty pounds, maybe a bit more, maybe not. She spoke with no real accent, which was another indication that she was somehow from the middle of the country.
Bill did not meet the new girls until they were on the line and starting the service. They had come in while he was downstairs, and unlike most days, since he was tripping, he had hung out longer downstairs the normal. So he had missed them on their ins and outs as they followed the waitresses they were assigned to and went about setting up the dining room, or pretty much making sure the dining room was set up, because the rule was that before everyone left after a meal service everything was set up for the next meal.
When the bell rang and everyone marched into the kitchen, Bill was first on the line and pulled the dupe from the spindle. It was an easy order, a deuce, two open-face roast beef sandwiches rare with mashed potatoes and veggies. Bill told Henry Lee he could stay outside if he wanted to but Henry Lee was already inside and getting ready to grease the grills to cook off some hamburgers and bleus.
It was Victoria’s order. Bill waited and watched as Victoria got the two salads for the table. Brooklyn was following her, but Bill did not know her yet. He met her when Victoria, two salads in hand, stepped over to where Bill was on the line and introduced her.
Brooklyn was beyond cute, Bill thought. She was downright edible. So he smiled his biggest smile when Victoria made the introduction and watched Brooklyn smile back. She winked at him and kind of shimmied a little to give him a bit of welcoming body language.
“Give me about 5 minutes before you set up the order,” Victoria said.
Bill followed Brooklyn’s every move as she walked out the front dining room door.
