They decided to swipe a bottle off the boss’ bar instead of going out to the liquor store. Immediately after the lunch service, Henry Lee did this. Bill went downstairs with him and took a good, long drink before both he and Henry Lee went back up to eat their lunches.
Mary ate tuna on rye. Bea ate chicken salad on a hamburger bun. Henry Lee ate a steak. Bill ate a rare roast beef sandwich on a hamburger bun with tomato and mayonnaise. He and Henry Lee drank beer.
Bill sat next to Mary in the booth. Mary reached several times for his beer and helped herself to it. When it was getting low, Bill asked Brooklyn, the waitress who happened to be in the room, to bring two more. She asked him what was in it for her and made a little kind of shimmy. Bill flashed her a big, big smile and told her “You never know until you know.”
Henry Lee, seeing this, said one word, shit, all drawn out to sound like she-it. “Shee-it.”
Mary elbowed Bill in the side. Bea did not say anything. She kept eating, drinking sometimes from Henry Lee’s beer.
After awhile Henry Lee said, “Anything we should know?”
Bill shrugged his shoulders. “Not that I know of. I ain’t done nothing.”
“Must’ve done something,” Mary said.
Bill said, “Don’t worry. I’ll find out. But I haven’t done anything, haven’t even flirted, not really.”
“What does not really mean?” Mary asked.
“Means I haven’t done anything.”
“If you say so.”
“I do say so. But like I said, I’ll find out.”
They all laughed. They all had a good laugh. It was a slow day, a recovery day from the record-busting, record-setting day they’d had yesterday.
After lunch, still no orders coming in and things very quiet, Bill and Henry Lee went downstairs. They smoked a joint in the deep freeze, drank some bourbon. Then Henry Lee went to work cutting meat. Bill began carting up shrimp and pickerel to be breaded. Mary was already cutting onions into the onion rings they would bread.
Same old shit, different day.
Because inventory of just about everything was depleted, Bill and Mary breaded tray after tray of things. Bill carried the trays down to the freezer, two by two when he could.
He and Mary stood for about two hours doing the breading. The only time they washed their hands and went away from it was when the other things they were working on required tending to. Mary had to stir the sauces on her stoves. She had to stir the pan of yellow rice that was cooking too. After the breading was done, she would make sure all the desserts were taken care of.
Bill took one of the times Mary was away from the breading to wash and tray up baking potatoes for the dinner service. He did this quickly and efficiently such that he and Mary were ready to go back to work together. But before they did, he took her by the hand, led her downstairs and into the meat room. Together with Henry Lee they smoked a joint, drank some bourbon, rested a moment teasing each other about their lives.
Back upstairs, Bill and Mary finished all the breading. They worked as quickly as they could to get it all done. Once the station was all cleaned up and everything put away, Bill went about building the steam table and setting up for the dinner. He worked quickly and efficiently, by rote, and when that was all done it was almost time to take out the baked potatoes.
Meanwhile, Mary finished up everything on her station and made sure everything for the desserts was done and set in place. Waitresses were now coming in and out of the kitchen getting what they needed from the dishwasher station for their bus stations.
Another day shift.
