On my first day at work, the manager handed me an Employee Handbook.
Rule Three: If the timer beeps twice and you still haven’t taken out the fried chicken, throw the whole basket in the trash. Don’t look inside.
Rule Seven: If the breading turns bright red, report it to the manager at once.
Rule Eleven: If you see something you shouldn’t, go to the kitchen, fry some chicken wings, and eat them yourself.
I thought these were just bizarre rules for the food-service industry, until I saw a handwritten note on the last page of the handbook:
“On this day last year, the manager parked at B057 and fried chicken all night.”
Now I start work at ten every night.
The front counter just got a phone call with no caller ID.
The voice on the other end said, “One family bucket, delivered to B057.”
And tonight’s schedule says I’m working alone, on the night shift, in the kitchen.
Beautiful and exciting