As Strange As FictionA Story by Kara Hadleymy day at work. -enjoy-
I was doing my job: taking orders and hawking chicken. I was doing it well. I was tired and barely paying attention to the constant flow of customers asking for plates that they called platters and complaining about getting ranch sauce instead of dressing. I called out an order and smiled politely as the over weight customer came to retrieve their deep fried chicken and overly salted fries. I stood at attention as they moved aside and the next customer walked forward.
“Hi. What can I get for you today?” I asked, feigning cheerfulness. The hours drifted by like this, punctuated only by short jaunts to the front of the restaurant to retrieve trays or oversized orange salad bowls.
I stood leaning against the counter while taking an old woman’s order. She ordered a blue cheese salad without the sauce. Later, the cooks would have trouble with that. For now, though, it made perfect sense to my barely conscious mind. The old woman took her order number and walked away as I turned and gave her ticket to the lazy cooks. When I returned to my faithful post a man was walking through the doors. The sight of him shook something in my bored brain.
I watched as he approached the counter. There was nothing spectacular about him. He wasn’t extremely good looking, if anything one would probably say that he was ugly, or at the very least, unkempt. I couldn’t take my eyes off of his round face. The closer he got the more it seemed he was a magnet, attracting and holding my entire gaze.
“Hi. What can I get for you?” I delivered flawlessly. I didn’t detach the ticket from the pad like I had been taught to do in order to save time. I continued to stare at this strange man. He was staring back at me, though. He wasn’t looking at the menu and deciding between the club and the Cajun club. He was staring at me, looking me straight in the eye. I turned my gaze to my ticket book and began circling order numbers, again to save time.
He looked back at me, though I was studying him safely from beneath the bill of my visor. When he looked at me I felt something, something I couldn’t understand. I saw someone in him; someone I hadn’t seen in a very long time; someone who’s memory made me warm with excitement and fear. I don’t know why. They looked nothing alike. The only slight resemblance was his shirt. It was plain white and showed a little wisp of chest hair, but even that wasn’t something I remembered fondly, or at all. It wasn’t his voice or the way he walked, but inside of him, somewhere, I saw my friend, this boy that had stolen so much of mine and refused to give it back, this boy that had dreamed and drank enough for the both of us, this boy that I missed secretly and terribly.
I don’t remember what he ordered, a sandwich maybe. I took his money and gave him change, I’m sure. He continued to study me, every look seemed to grow bigger and every time I returned his stare it seemed as if there were words resting right on the tip of his tongue, words I wanted to hear. Finally, at the last minute, as I’m handing the small slip of paper with his number he softens his look and says to me, “You look like a girl from a movie”.
© 2008 Kara HadleyAuthor's Note
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1 Review Added on March 22, 2008 Last Updated on March 22, 2008 AuthorKara HadleyAbouti'm kara. i'm short. i like to bake. i love music. i'm a little skanky. people say i'm funny. i have blonde hair. spelling isn't my forte. i have big teeth. i have bigger dreams. i'm a little superfic.. more..Writing
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