Hostile Hospitality

First Day Gitters

The next morning she got up extra early, to make sure she was on time. Shanea took a quick shower, dressed and did her hair. Once she was ready, she ate some Fruit Loops, an orange, and drank some fruit punch for breakfast. Afterwards, she grabbed her coat and headed out the door. Placing her bag in the car, she turned the ignition and pulled out of the parking

lot of her apartment complex. “Open up the Floodgates” playing in the background.

As she was driving along Richland Rd, she hummed along to the song, in an attempt to calm her nerves.

Once she neared the grounds of the Inn, she struggled trying to remember where her boss told her to park. Shanea had yet to receive her parking pass nor her employee identification card. Therefore, she knew she would have some difficulty entering through the employee entrance, once she parked.

No matter how hard she tried to recall the lot she had been shown a few days earlier, she just couldn’t remember. So, she wandered around until she found the, or a sign indicating employee parking. From the looks of the well manicured shrubbery, she knew this was not the same area. However, she was about to be late, so she went with the flow.

Despite her near tardiness, Shanea sat in her car for awhile longer. She sat there until she could muster up enough courage to go inside. Once she felt confident enough, she got out of her car, and began walking towards the building. As she neared the entrance door down a set of steps, she held her breath and pulled on the door. This was it, the terrifying moment she had been preparing herself for.

However, once she attempted to pull on the handle, the door didn’t budge. Shanea looked at the sign aboveground to verify that this was an employee entrance and then she turned back to the door. After a few moments, she looked to her right and saw a box scanner. This meant that the door required a key card in order for someone to enter. Therefore, she went back up the stairs, and followed the sign to another employee entrance. This one also required a key card. Fortunately enough for Shanea, there was another employee in front of her, who had a key card, and she just followed behind her.

Once inside, Shanea had no idea where she was going. Her sense of direction was askew from the maze-like hallways. Her gut told her to continue to follow the female employee from outside. As she followed the woman through the maze of hallways, and up a flight of stairs, she started to recognize where she was going. They were both headed to the same place, the kitchen.

Coincidentally, by the time they had turned the corner to the second set of hallways, things really started to click for Shanea. She no longer felt like a stalker following behind this woman, but rather like a fellow employee who just so happened to be going to the same place.

Once they had reached the main level, Shanea and the young woman split, with Shanea going directly to the kitchen, and the woman going into a locker room just off of the kitchen. After several moments of looking around the area, an old grey-haired man with a peppered mustache and leathery skin, and pork belly, asked her in a scratchy smoker's voice, “Are you lost?” Shanea gave the man a once-over, and determined by the way he was dressed (long sleeved white buttoned up shirt, blueish grey tie with matching vest and navy pants) that he must be a server. She responded with a child-like yet sturdy tone of voice, “No, I am right where I need to be.”

The man spread his stance like a cowboy ready for a standoff. “ What area are you working in and who are you here to see?” He asked with a curious look. “ I’m the new hostess and I’m supposed to meet up with someone named Jackie?” Shanea responded.

He put his hands in his vest pocket leaned back on the galley counter as if in an old western. “Oh, well in that case, follow me, and I will show you where she is.” Shanea respectfully followed the server to meet with Jackie, the person who was to train her this week. “Here you go. Jackie this little lady says she is training with you today?” Shanea looked at Jackie, as Jackie turn toward her, from doing some paperwork.

Jackie turned on this fake smile that she had obviously been practicing for several years, but Shanea had not caught onto it and said with confidence, “Hi, how are you? Nice to meet you.” Jackie outstretched her hand and Shanea, who was not fond of touching, reluctantly took it.“Nervous, OK but nervous.” Jackie laughed with an ominous toned chuckle. “There’s nothing to be nervous about. It is easy, I promise.” With that brief introduction, the cowboy retreated back to the kitchen.

“Yeah right, Shanea thought to herself,”as if Jackie’s words of encouragement were going to make Shanea feel any better. Shanea just nodded and smiled at Jackie, but said nothing to the contrary. “ All right, so come over here with me and we can get started on the paperwork for the morning.” Jackie informed Shanea.

They went to the hall coat room for all of the front of house paperwork and materials along with the coats resided. “All right, so this is where we keep all of our supplies. This notebook,” Jackie Grab a black notebook from the top of a small filing cabinet next to the armoire filled with menus. “This notebook is sectioned off into different restaurant areas and by number of servers. So, for instance, this morning's breakfast restaurant was the Godfrey Room. In the afternoon, we moved over to the Tucker room, and for reservations at night we use the Rochester room. It makes sense?” Jackie asked, handing the folder to Shanea. “Just let me know if I lost you.” Jackie had most definitely lost Shanea. However, Shanea wasn’t going to tell her that. “Got it. I understand.” Shanea mumbled out loud.“I’ll just have to read through them all myself to actually understand.” Jackie continued on,“ Now we are going to have three servers for today, so we use the three server sheets.” Shanea wanted to ask how Jackie knew how many servers there were, but she kept quiet.