Bill remembered the time with Mary, that one afternoon at Suburban when they were going about breading shrimp, pickerel and onion rings.
Wasn’t the only time he was high. Wasn’t the only time he was tripping. Wasn’t the only time he was high and drunk and tripping. But it was the time he and Mary had put aside to do the breading for the rest of the week.
Actually Mary hadn’t put away her time. She had put away his time. She had planned it so Bill had time to do the breading while all she had to do was help set him up, watch him and help him tray everything the way she wanted it for them for the line.
Bill already knew everything anyway. Bill was a quick study, smart and very organized. Mary knew this about Bill. She also knew he was meticulous, not just in his cooking but in his other activities too. That was one thing she liked about him and her together. He was painstakingly thorough.
Bill and Henry Lee had been drinking and smoking pot all morning straight up to the lunch service. They had beer stashed in the hall for when there were lulls during the service so they could go to the hall and drink. Bill had brought some acid to work with him and thinking they would have a slow afternoon, not much to do but the breading and some meat cutting, he popped a tab right at the start of the lunch service.
He’d figured it would take awhile to come on, probably hit him right about when he was standing with Mary doing the setup for the breading. But it didn’t quite work that way.
Henry Lee happened to see him pop the tab.
“Goddamn,” he said.
“Fuck it,” Bill said. “Sometimes I just fucking hate life.”
“Yeah, well, ain’t that a bitch,” Henry Lee said.
“Like I said,” Bill said.
The acid came on much sooner than he’d thought and right in the middle of the lunch rush he found he was tripping. It wasn’t a lot at first and he functioned. But toward the end of the service it took all the concentration he could muster just to do the slightest work well.
Henry Lee helped much as he could. He didn’t want Mary to find out and he certainly didn’t want Bea to find out. Bea was a wild card. She would be livid and no telling what she would do.
He knew Tommy was hip to it because Tommy, the assistant manager, was shaking his head as he watched Bill fumble around. Tommy was expediting. Twice he asked Bill if he was okay. Twice Bill said he was fine, that he felt sick, a little dizzy. Tommy asked if he had to cover Bill for the night. Bill said he’d be okay.
He was okay. He made it through the service. He was messed up at lunch for the staff and he was fully tripping as he and Mary set up for the breading. Several times he reached up under Mary’s skirt and several other times he just plain felt her up up there. Twice he kissed her right in front of Bea. Part of that on some subconscious level was spite, not to make Bea jealous but to piss her off.
They watched Bill, Mary and Bea did, while he stood over the breading station for about an hour just staring into the egg wash and not breading anything. Several times Mary went out the side doors into the side dining room to get coffee for her and Bill. Bill drank the coffee she brought him, but it wasn’t changing anything.
Finally she said what she said, which was “Boy how long you plan to be staring into them eggs? You plan to do any breading?”
Breading was a mindless chore, why Bill could, fairly drunk at the moment, not only bread the chicken breasts with Victor and the banquet chef but be lost in his thoughts too. His hands, experienced hands, moved without need for his head.
