Mildred Pierce - James M. Cain [25]
Mildred blinked helplessly at this formidable array. "Well—can I have a tray?"
In despair, Ida picked up plates, glasses, and napkins, so they were spread across her fingers like playing cards, and balanced halfway up her arm. "Get the soup, and come on." She was gone before Mildred could recover from the speed of her legerdemain. The soup Mildred picked up gingerly, kicking the out door open as she saw the others doing. Taking care not to spill any of it, she eventually reached the table. Ida was smoothing the two women down, and from their glances Mildred knew it had been fully explained to them that she was a new girl, and that allowances had to be made for her. At once they began amusing themselves by calling her January and Slewfoot. Lest she show resentment, she started for the kitchen, but it seemed impossible to get away from Ida. "Pick up something! Don't never make a trip, in or out, without something in your hand. You'll trot all day and you'll never get done! Get them dirty dishes over there, on No. 3. Pick up something!"
The afternoon dragged on. Mildred felt stupid, heavy, slow, and clumsy. Try as she would to "pick up something," dirty dishes piled on her tables, and unserved orders in the kitchen, until she thought she would go insane from the confusion. Her trouble, she discovered, was that she hadn't the skill to carry more than two dishes at a time. Trays were prohibited here, Ida informed her, because the aisles were so narrow they would lead to crashes, and this meant that everything had to be carried by hand. But the trick of balancing half a dozen dishes at a time was beyond her. She tried it once, but her hand crumpled under the weight, and a hot fudge sundae almost went on the floor. The climax came around three o'clock. The place was empty by then and the fish-faced cashier came back to inform her she had lost a check. The subsequent figuring showed that the check was for fifty-five cents, which meant that her whole hourly wage was lost. She wanted to throw everything in the place at the cashier's head, but didn't. She said she was sorry, gathered up the last of her dirty dishes, and went back with them.
In the kitchen, Mr. Chris and Ida were in a huddle, evidently talking about her. From their expressions as they started toward her, she sensed that the verdict was unfavorable, and she waited miserably for them to get it over with, so she could get away from Ida, and the Filipino dish washers, and the smell, and the noise, and drearily wonder what she was going to do next. But as they passed Archie, he looked up and made a gesture such as an umpire makes in calling a man safe at the plate. They looked surprised, but that seemed to settle it. Mr. Chirs said "hokay, hokay," and went into the dining room. Ida came over to Mildred. "Well, personally, Mikired, I don't think you're suited to the work at all, and Mr. Chris, he wasn't a bit impressed either but the Chef thinks you'll do, so against our better judgmen we're going to give you a trial."
Mildred remembered the reconstructed club sandwich an the little nod she had received from Archie, realized that i was indeed important to be in good with the Chef. Bu by now her dislike of Ida was intense, and she made n effort to keep the acid out of her voice as she said: "Wel please thank Archie for me and tell him I hope I won' disappoint him." She spoke loud enough for Archie to hear and was rewarded with a loud, ursine cackle.
Ida went on: "Your hours are from eleven in the morning ten thirty if you want breakfast, to three in the afternoon and if you want lunch then, you can have it. We don't d a big dinner business here, so we only keep three girls or at night, but they take turns. You're on call twice a weel from five to nine, same wages as in the daytime. Sundays we're closed. You'll need white shoes. Ask for nurses' regulation at any of the stores, two ninety-five. Well what's the matter, Mildred, don't you want the job?"
"I'm a little tired, that's all."
"I don't wonder, the way you trot."
When she got home, the children had just