Scared yet?

Fast food can be hell

The day started off normal enough. Faith was on her way to work on a Tuesday. Her little Honda sped down the wet lanes of traffic. She wasn't very focused on the road. Her radio was on and she was bobbing her head to the rhythm of the music. Suddenly some idiot swerved in front of her. Faith slammed on the breaks, but she knew she couldn't stop in time. She closed her eyes and- Suddenly she found that her car was by the curb. The machinery was unscathed. She seemed unharmed.

She got out of the car and looked for the idiot driver but couldn't find him.

"Hit and run...", she thought.

She considered calling the cops but since there was no damage to the vehicle, she shrugged it off. Had she simply imagined it? She got back in the car and started the engine. Her heart pounding, she continued on her way to work. She glanced at the radio clock. God! She was an hour late! Had she passed out at the scene of the crash? Did the crash even happen? She knew that it would be difficult to convince her manager that a car crash made her late since she wasn't injured and her car was fine.

She arrived at work and decided that she must have dazed off and imagined the accident. She entered the front doors and silently prayed she wouldn't feel the wrath of her manager. She had been late several times this month and she knew that she was a short distance from being tossed out of the restaurant on her butt, fired before she could gather her wits. She needed this job. It had taken her three months to obtain it, and it was her only hope if she planned to get into that crappy community college, the only one that was realistically possible for her to even get into.

She snuck into the back door of the building and set her purse and other belongings on the table cautiously, and tried not to make a sound. If she could just sneak passed her manager's office- Crap. Too late. Her manager banged the office door open.

"Hanning! Get in here!" her manager bellowed.

Faith couldn't help but smirk when she saw her manager's purple hue to her skin. Behind the manager's back, many of the employees called her Patty the Plum, because of her constant angry violet complexion.

Faith slipped carefully into Patty's office, trying to mask her worry with a stoic uncaring expression.

"You're late again Hanning! This is the third time this month! I've told you a million times if you can't get here on time, you need to look for employment elsewhere, because I can't deal with lazy, ungrateful, irresponsible employees!"

Faith apologized quietly and mumbled out some story about a dead car battery. She still couldn't shake off the feeling that something wasn't right. It was your imagination, she thought to herself. Her brain wandered elsewhere until Patty the Plum gruffly told her to get to work.

"One mistake today Hanning, and you're out of here! Don't try me either! You know I'm a woman of my word!"

Faith nodded and sighed quietly. She cursed Patty, and wished evil things upon Patty's kin under her breath after the office door swung shut. She headed to the front to begin the tedious eight hour shift ahead of her.

After inspecting the clipboard, she discovered she was responsible for lobby again and sighed with relief. She enjoyed lobby. The customers were always so nice and lobby was easy to manage. Cleaning tables, emptying garbage, stocking the island, sweeping, and of course chatting with the customers was always a good time. There were tense moments of course, especially Saturdays during rush hour but, being a Tuesday afternoon, the lobby was almost empty. There were maybe two or three people seated at the tables in the whole place, and Faith didn't find it surprising.

She collected trays, wiped tables and emptied the overflowing trash bins. Before she knew it, the clock on the wall read 6:30. Sighing with relief, she went to go punch out for her dinner break. After gorging herself with her usual chicken strips and milkshake, Faith got back to work.