It was my first day of work. The restaurant was small, and didn’t look like any restaurant I had ever seen. It had a dark, bar vibe… but also felt kind of like a cafe. When I walked in, the girl training me, Samantha, told me that I would be fine, and didn’t need to be trained. She said that this was a very busy day for them, and she didn’t have time to teach me how to do my job. Then she gestured to one side of the restaurant, and told me that that section was mine. I stared at her in horror, but before I could ask a single question, she walked away, and I was left alone. I had a white apron I had to put on, and could not figure out how to do it. I struggled with the complex garment, until I watched another girl put hers on, and then I understood. I hesitantly walked up to a table where a family of four was sitting, greeted them, and asked them what they wanted to drink. The mom wanted something I had never heard of, and when I asked her to clarify, she got angry. Her husband ordered his drink, and the drinks for the kids, and I went to get them.
I asked another waiter where I go to get the drinks, since I was never even shown around, and he pointed to a bar. Behind the bar was a simple kitchen that looked like it belonged in someone’s apartment. I looked around for glasses, but couldn’t find any. Finally, I opened a cabinet, and glasses and cups of all different sizes and colors nearly fell on top of me. I grabbed four glasses, and tried to figure out where I was supposed to get the drinks. I watched another waitress walk over to the bar, pick up a can of Sprite, and pout it into a cup. I asked her where all the rest of the beverages were, and she just shrugged. I looked everywhere, and was only to find 3 cans of Sprite, each in a different cabinet. I started to panic, as I walked back to the table to inform the family that we were apparently out of drinks. The man just laughed and said that Sprite was fine, but the mom completely lost it, and started shouting in my face about how she was going to have me fired.
Shaking, I walked away from the table, and immediately was called over to another. There was a large group of young adults seated in a booth, maybe 7 or 8 of them total. I smiled and asked them if they had been helped, and just then, the waiter from before shoved me to the side, and told me to leave his tables alone. I told him that this was my section, and he ripped off his apron, threw it to the ground, and stomped off. I turned to take the drink order once more, forgetting to tell them that we were completely out of drinks, other than water. I took out a notepad from my apron, and started writing down their order, but Samantha stormed up to me, ripped it from my hands, and told me that writing down orders was “cheating”, and that good wait staff could memorize it. I started to cry, and reminded her that it was my fist day, and that everything was going wrong. She told me that if I couldn’t handle it, I should just leave now. The mom at the previous table stood up and cheered, while the group at the table I was waiting on booed and shouted at her. She just smirked and walked away.
I stood there, completely frozen, unable to move. Everyone in the restaurant was staring at me, and I didn’t know what to do. I apologized profusely to the table, and ran out the back door.
Outside was a large playground, and there were a ton of kids playing. I sat at one corner of the playground, and watched one boy bullied all of the other children. I looked around, and noticed that there wasn’t a single parent outside supervising, and some of the kids were barely over a year or two old. I walked closer, and saw the boy shove a little girl, no more than two years old, down the largest slide on the playground. She started screaming, but no one came for her. I walked up to the boy and told him that he needed to leave, because he could not hurt other kids like that. He laughed loudly and shouted, “Fuck you!” before shoving another little girl to the ground.
I picked him up by the collar of his shirt and moved him toward the edge of the playground, where there was suddenly a 10 foot drop. He started to cry and kick, and suddenly, there were adults all over the playground, watching in horror. I tried to explain to the parents that I was trying to teach him a lesson, and that he had hurt the smaller children, but they wouldn’t listen. Dozens of parents started swarming the playground, climbing and clawing at me, and I shouted for them to let me go, otherwise I would accidentally drop the boy.
Someone grabbed one of my legs, and I stumbled backwards, losing my grip on the boy. He fell. The 10 foot drop was suddenly closer to 20 feet, and all I heard was silence. All of the parents had stopped moving, and stood there, half staring at me, half staring at the boy. I didn’t look. I took advantage of the momentary shock to run. I ran from the property, and out to the road, but there was nothing in sight. So I just kept running toward nothing. I kept looking over my shoulder, and I could see people jumping into cars and chasing after me, but I kept running down the middle of the road.
And then I woke up.
My Life as Jan 