It's a busy day. And at lunch a couple of the servers cut early, leaving the Bosses Nephew and I to finish up.
It's busy, but we can handle it. The owner, he looks for the missing staff, can't find them. I tell them they're gone. And there's a couple of minutes, a couple of minutes only, where we fall behind, the Nephew, he's not so strong, doesn't speak English well enough to answer the phone, he isn't really a big help.
In the evening the boss goes on a tirade. There's the "You fucking lazy bastards" and all sorts of permutations, he's having his monthly rant. Mostly I just ignore it, but it casts a pall over the shift and the staff. He goes on for about half an hour, then "You are all fucking-a taking advantage of my kindness ....".
Customers come in and it's a bit of a relief, he compensates for his earlier tantrum by being extra nice to the customers.
I go for a cigarette. There's a customer pulled up in the back parking lot, he's having some trouble, I walk over to assist him. "Are you wheelchair accessible?" he asks, and as I begin to explain that we'll need to assist him over a short step "No shortage of help" I assure him, he begins to swear, we've misrepresented (in his opinion) our handicapped and wheelchair-accessible options....I walk away. Even I have my limits. He calls me back, apologetic he's assuring me that he still intends to come in for dinner (and I'm not so thrilled, the wheelchair appearing to be the least of his handicaps...).
The customer gets inside (without my help) and the Owner calls me over - "Was he just rude to you guys?" he asks, and I begin to explain and the owner interrupts - "because we don't need any fucking rude-a people around here, we can just-a kick him out..."
Without the slightest trace of irony.