The Struggle Of Our Lives

Chapter 15: John's Day

Time to get this show on the road.

—

I made my way to the main room, and stepped down into "the cockpit" as Adam called it. The bar was a step down from the rest of the restaurant, similar to an Applebee's .

I took my plain black apron and tossed it over my head, then tied the long ribbons behind my back into a bow. Not soon after I put my hair up into a bun, a man came in with a woman clutching his arm.

I didn't manage to hear what they said to Amy, but she grabbed two menus and walked them to a nearby table. Now that I had my apron and set all my belongings down in the cockpit, I was able to walk up the steep stairs and take two menus from a nearby table and place them in front of the pair.

I whipped out my small notebook and a blue pen and began my usual routine.

"Hi guys! My name's Terry, I'll be your host today, what can I get started for you?" I said. My customer service voice always sounds so fake.

"Hi, I'll have a-"

——

Finally, the day was over, and I was able to go collect my children and go home. At the end of the day, I had about $230 from both my daily payout and my tips. I untied and hung up my black apron, now reeking of alcohol, and grabbed my things from my locker. Remembering to put my sweater back on.

I thanked Adam and Amanda for helping me out throughout the day, and scaring away weird customers, and gave Amy a goodbye hug.

I had found out recently that she was about my age, and her father wanted her to "be useful" and get a job. We had become friends shortly after this discovery.

I got to the school and collected my kiddos and we walked to our bus stop. We talked about our day, and I noticed Charlotte seemed unusually quiet. I brushed this off as her being tired from the day she's had, as sometimes the twins just had no energy left.

We boarded the bus and continued to talk for a bit, while Char fell asleep on Tedd's shoulder.

I guess she's *really* tired.

We no longer needed to pull the line to get the busman to stop, as he memorized our route. He seemed to never take a sick day, and wished us a good night as we left.

We walked down a set of wooden steps I had made out of wood taken from a pallet. The steps weren't completely stable, but not rickety enough to need a railing.

"Lets eat some dinner!" I told the twins. Tedd agreed but Char just nodded. Now I was starting to get a little worried. We had discussed what we wanted and decided on making chicken cordon bleu.

I rummaged through the tiny refrigerator I had bought a few years back, looking through the frozen half of the box, and selected our food, still in it's cardboard box.