“The same ones, Walter.”
He smiled.
“Good. I’ll take those.”
Chad also raised prices.
Started charging for coffee refills.
Renamed the Farmer’s Breakfast the Heartland Harvest Plate.
And hired a culinary-school graduate who put fennel in the gravy.
Customers complained.
Some stopped coming.
Chad insisted the changes would attract a new generation.
Then he hired Madison.
***
Madison was nineteen.
A sweet girl who had just finished her first year of community college.
She needed a summer job.
She’d never worked in a diner before.
And I liked her immediately.
When she didn’t understand an old-fashioned breakfast order, I explained it.
When she forgot how someone liked their coffee, I reminded her.
She was trying her best.
But Chad wanted someone younger greeting customers.
And after a few weeks, he decided I belonged in the kitchen.
That first day in the dishwashing room was miserable.
The heat fogged my glasses.
