Some people get all the luck, and some people work in a fast food joint. I suppose it’s just easy to be bitter. Getting the chance to taste freedom only to discover you can’t afford that luxury does weigh a person down after a while. It did not help that I was, very proudly, a larger lady. A larger lady who just happened to work at a burger joint. The condescending stares of those who knew more about me than I did were never easy to get used to. Coming back home to a dead end town and a dead end job after a year at an arts college is a pretty decent reason to be bitter.
Living at home is a drag all in itself, but double when the people back home don’t really want you there. I guess at least that’s one thing we agree on. Yet, each day has its small joys if the cards are played in my favor. Getting to work the drivethru is usually where my luck leads me. At least there I gave a good chance of seeing some dogs and one time a very well behaved cat.
I see the order before I see the person when I’m the cashier. It’s my job to collect the money and hand out the food. It’s good practice if I ever wanted to become a drug dealer. I also say the exact same things in the exact same order every time. Hypnosis is more simple than you’d imagine really. The customer service voice you adopt will also drain you of all energy by the end of an eight hour shift.
Drivethru also keeps me busy. The people and their orders tend to just blur together after a few mind numbing hours. Sometimes, however, you’ll meet someone who throws your typical soul crushing customer service routine out of whack.
An all American order of a burger, fries and a vanilla shake came up on my register. I mentally repeated the amount and checked to see if I had the shake yet. Nope. Of course not. Why would I? I’ll just get right on that- on top of whatever else I have to do. I turned to the window, pushing open the little double doors and got a good look at the person who had ordered it. A police car was pulled up to my window. This was not uncommon, but still a little more interesting than the usual.
“Hi,” I said in my falsely chipper voice. “That will be $7.40 please.”
“Hello,” he said digging through his car for the money. My tummy squished against the windowsill as I leaned forward and watched him.
He was not exactly unattractive, if that’s what you were into, but as a demi-sexual that didn’t matter much to me. Still he was well kept and clean. An absolute bonus when it comes to certain fast food customers. What was striking about him were his eyes. Not in some cheesy, ‘oh his eyes were so blue I could swim in them’, but rather that one was lighter and blinded. And they were very blue.
I thanked him, sir, with a smile plastered on my face. You’ve always got to keep smiling around here. He’d given me exact change, bless him, and I threw it in the register to go run and make his shake. The other drivethru worker, the one who took the orders over our shared headsets, had beaten me to making it. Instead I settled on seeing if my order was ready yet.
Working in a burger joint isn’t glamorous, but I did enjoy the structure. The routine was easy to fall into and it was impossible to worry about daily struggles when there are new orders ever minute. Waiting and rushing, however, could really throw you off your game. Doubly so when you burn yourself on french fries.
I shook the fryer oil off my skin and carefully plopped the fries in the paper bag next to the burger. Tossing some napkins in and folding the top of the bag, I walked back to my little drivethru corner. Sack in hand, I pushed through the mini double doors and out to the world. The semi-blind cop turned to me and smiled a bright and warm grin. He didn’t seem much older than me. I smiled back at him, this time a little more genuinely.
“Here you are, sir,” I said handing him the bag.
“Thank you, ma’am,” he responded.
I turned to retrieve the shake as my coworker brought it to me. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed the car begin to pull away. Heck! He was gonna forget his shake. I wanted to push the window open, but his car window was already rolled up and gone before I could do the full rotation to my side.
Messing up orders is a regular part of fast food work. I assumed he would come back to get his shake in a few minutes, possibly with a snide remark at me for not giving it to him first, the way I normally would prefer. I left the drink on the counter behind me. The little whip cream spiral had long since become a sad and tired blob by the time I realized he simply wasn’t coming back.
This kind of thing happens sometimes as well, but I couldn’t help feeling a little guilty about the whole ordeal. The rest of the day came and went with the greasy monotony that only fast food can offer. The events of the day eventually left my mind as time passed.
It was weeks until I saw him again. While I hadn’t completely forgotten about him, the whole thing was hardly in the forefront of my mind when he came through. Once again, as was true for most days, I was in the drivethru. This had become my normal spot as late spring turned into early summer. Even with my slip-ups and mistakes, I was fast and efficient and that was all that really mattered. I didn’t mind much, as it was the coolest space in the blistering store.
The order was the same as before, but it wasn’t until I saw him did I realized who it was. I was immediate excited by this and pushed open the little window. A chance to fix my mistake and redeem my burger honor? How could I pass up that chance. He smiled at me with a shy kind of smile. I pushed some stray dark hair out of my face.
“Hi!” I said, perhaps a bit over zealous.
“Hello. How much is it again?” He asked politely.
“Well!” I interjected. “Last time you were here, you forgot your shake. So I’m just gonna give you one on me.”
“What? No you don’t need to that, I can pay for it,” he said in surprise.
“You already did last time. Just pay for the burger and fries and we’ll call it square.”
“You drive a hard bargain, miss,” he said laughing as he handed me his card.
I beamed as I fiddled with the register to adjust the order. I read him the new total and swiped the card. After I handed it back to him I headed off to make the shake personally. He had asked for a small but I decided to bump it up to a medium since he had had to wait a literal month for it.
“This is a small?” He asked with some alarm when I gave it to him.
“Oh no,” I said with mock surprise. “Did I totally accidentally grab a medium? Oh well, it would be a waste to throw it away now. You should just keep it.”
“Now this is too much. Let me pay for this,” he said reaching for his wallet. I leaned out the window on my tiptoes to speak to him more privately.
“It’s only, like, 20 cents extra. I won’t tell if you don’t.”
“Okay. Just this once, but you had better watch yourself, miss,” he said playfully stern as he pointed to his badge. I smiled and laughed, brushing back more wavy hair.
A coworker dropped his bagged food on my counter and I reeled back in from the window, straightening out the tight shirt. They gave me a questioning look and I just smiled as I stuffed some napkin haphazardly into the small bag. With a roll of the eyes they walked off and I turned back to the officer.
“Here you are, sir,” I said handing him the bag.
“Thank you, Erin,” he said leaning in to read my name tag.
“Thank you. Have a wonderful day!”
“You too. Hope to see you around.”
I watched as he drove off, content at having fixed my mistake. A new car pulled up in its place and my customer service voice and fake smile slowly pulled me away from the small burst of joy. Some people get all the luck, but at least there rest of us can catch a few brief moment of happiness everyday.
——
Part 1/???
Based on an incident that happened to me when I worked at a Burger King, except he never came back for his shake. I wrote this to explore what could have happened in a different time and place.
Water My Roses In Tea 