Hometown

A typical night at a small hometown pizza place for Caitlyn.

Hometown

 

      The shrill ring of the phone shattered the quiet hum of Miller’s Pizza.  Caitlyn jumped to it, feeling like the person on the other end of the line was demanding her attention.  She answered the phone and took down the order as a group of young boys came to the counter to buy some candy.  She acknowledged them, but was too busy answering the phone to ring them up.  Richie took the first order from the counter and put it up.  He rang up the boys and then turned to fill the order Caitlyn had taken.

       Caitlyn was in the middle of the second order when the other line cried out into her ear.  Trying to ignore the loud burst, she finished the order and answered the other line.  The driver, Judy, came in followed by a middle-aged couple ready for the local football game. The couple stood impatiently waiting for their pizza to be ready to pick up.  After two more calls, Caitlyn was finally able to ring them up.  She took their pizza from the top of the old stone oven and handed it to them.  After they paid and left, she quickly checked the oven.  A pizza appeared to be done, so she pulled it out, cut it and boxed it.  She matched with its ticket and came around to help her boss Richie to fill next four orders, which were all rather large.  He handed her two tickets and instructed her to make the subs.  She pulled out the foil and the sub buns wishing Julie was there to help her out on this very busy night.  Julie wasn’t due in for another hour yet though.

      Caitlyn worked steadily on the order as people flowed in and out of the small building.  The phone continued to ring pretty steadily.  Just when Caitlyn felt like she was caught up, several more orders would come in.  Finally Julie arrived, late as usual.  Caitlyn went to tackle the large stack of dishes as Julie donned on her apron and began filling orders.  The football game had begun and they wouldn’t get busy again until the game was over most likely.

       A little old woman wandered in as Caitlyn looked up from her dishes.  “Hi Grandma,” she smiled.

      “Need help?”

      “Sure. You can rinse those dishes there,” Caitlyn gestured.

       Slowly the woman came over to the sink and began to wash the pizza pans one by one.  Grandma had originally owned the small pizza place in 1958.  She ran it for a long time before her daughter took over.  Then her grandson had just recently bought it.  That was three years ago.  Business had been slow, but it turned out to be an excellent investment.  Since Richie bought it and began advertising business had boomed.  Grandma and Grandpa lived across the street and came over from time to time.  They still liked to feel a part of the business they helped create, which meant they made a point to get to know the employees and help out once in a while.  Miller’s Pizza atmosphere was still casual and friendly, which is how it started out in 1958.

        Judy was wiping down the make table when someone came up behind her. 

       “Hi mommy!” Randee cried.

       Judy turned.  “Hey Sissy.  Is it 9 o’clock already?”

       “Yep,” she smiled. 

       Judy’s ex had dropped off their daughter at 9 o’clock because he had somewhere he had to be and couldn’t watch her for any longer.  Richie didn’t mind Randee hanging out at the shop for a while, which really helped Judy out.  Randee kept busy watching TV or making crafts out of empty boxes and papers.  And that is exactly what she did for next half an hour or so she was there. 

        The phones had been silent for a long while, so this gave Caitlyn a chance to fill up the pop machines outside as Julie kept busy inside folding boxes.  Richie nibbled at a pizza that they’d made mistake on and couldn’t sell.  Lewis, Richie’s friend from High School, came in to talk and hang out.  This meant Lewis got to tease Richie about Richie’s crush on a customer named Brenda.  The subject quickly changed to car stereos and the game Richie had purchased for his Play Station. 

       One of the regular’s came in to by his usual twelve pack of Natural Lite.  In his booking voice he asked for it and then bet Richie $20 that Perdue would win their next game.  The betting lasted ten minutes before they agreed on a price.  Richie run up the beer and good ole Paul walked out of the door.  Caitlyn shook her head as slipped passed her and outside into the cool fall night.  Paul had been there once already to purchase a previous twelve pack and most likely pretty drunk already.  As long as he didn’t cause any problems or harass any of the employees, Richie continued to sell him as much alcohol as he required to feed his habit.  It was also accepted that a certain female customer came in for cigarettes and a six pack of Bud Ice every Friday.  These were everyday people living their everyday lives.  It wasn’t particularly dramatic.

      Caitlyn close up the pop machine and talked to Judy who was smoking her cigarette outside.  Then as the phone rang, Caitlyn went inside to take care of the next order.  Richie was already on the phone, so Caitlyn glanced at the order over his shoulder before preparing to make it.  As he finished getting the customer’s name and address, Caitlyn pulled out a pan, sprayed it and rolled out the dough.  By the time he put the order up she was ready to put the specific toppings on as ordered.  As she slipped the pizza into the oven, Rick’s girlfriend came downstairs.  Rick was a lived alone in the tiny apartment upstairs, but his girlfriend was there nearly all the time.  He frequently called in orders and had the employees bang on the ceiling when his food was ready.  Judy had given the required bang on the ceiling a few moments ago and so the girlfriend appeared. 

      Rick’s girlfriend was something like fifteen years younger than him.  Though Rick was nearing fifty, his girlfriend was Caitlyn’s age.  They seemed like an odd couple, but they were madly in love.  Judy rang Rick’s order up and handed it to the girlfriend.  Once she disappeared back upstairs, Judy took off on a delivery.  It was shortly after that that several more deliveries came up and demanded to be taken.  Richie didn’t want to have his customers wait nearly an hour for Judy to return, so he sent Caitlyn on delivery run.

     “Sure, why not?” Caitlyn replied when Richie asked her if she’d go.

     “Here, I will even count out the change for you,” he said.  He gave her a bag with money, the thermo-bag with the order in it and the slip.  He wrote down several combinations of change for Caitlyn and asked, “Do you know where Park Street and Koppe Court meet?”

     “Mmm, I have an idea,” she said checking the city map quickly to confirm her suspicions.  “Yep, I found them,” she declared.  Caitlyn had only moved to town a few months ago and didn’t know the area very well.  Richie had let her deliver some, but mostly as a back-up driver.  Awkwardly, Caitlyn made her way to her Plymouth Horizon and took off for her set destination.   The tape in the tape deck began playing as she turned on her lights and let her car warm up a moment before taking off.  A minute later the car leaped into motion and sped away. 

       Cailtyn drove across town to Park Street, which was easy enough to find.  The problem was that she had trouble reading the numbers on the houses once she found the street.  It took her a while to make sense of the nonsensical order.  She had to turn around and go back down the road a bit before she found the right house.  One she dropped off the first order, she hopped back in her car and made her way to the second house on Koppe Court.  Koppe Court was confusing because it was off County Line Road 301.  It felt like a very long drive out of town, but it wasn’t really all the far.  Caitlyn jammed out to her Garbage tape and enjoyed the time to herself.  There were a couple of turns and she should have arrived easily enough, but she found herself at the wrong spot.  Caitlyn search for a road sign of any sort, but found nothing.  She continued on and took yet another turn before she found herself exactly where she needed to be.  When she got back into the car after delivering the second order there was a sense of relief. 

       By the time Caitlyn got back it was nearly closing time.  As she and the others began to clean up, a kid came in on roller blades and bought a few pieces of candy with rolled up change. Then he rolled out of the store.

      Richie’s friend Lewis sat ideally by, joking and teasing the employees as they did all the hard work of mopping and cleaning.  Richie counted out Judy and Caitlyn’s bags before letting them go home for the night.  Caitlyn took her tips and walked out into the dark, cold night.  She promised to see them again the next night to do it all over again.

Author's Note

This is a fictional depiction of a place I actually worked :-)