The Waiter

The Waiter by Matias Faldbakken

     When you’ve become middle aged and set in your ways and you work in a restaurant that has seen people come and go for centuries, you take pride in that.  You take pride in maintaining the discretionary traditions, in being invisible unless needed. There is no “Hello my name is____ and I’ll be your server today” at The Hills. The people who frequent the place and you take pride in anticipating needs and desires, in knowing without interacting with on a personal level.  Everything is just so and just as it should be.  But the patrons would be surprised to know just how much the staff does know about them!
     One day, one of the regulars, known as The Pig, comes in and informs staff that he is expecting a guest.  When she arrives she changes the dynamics of The Hill in ways our waiter never expect.  Nothing is the same, even the air they breathe has changed.  Tradition matters no more.  And questions come to mind about who is normal and who is not. And what do they do about it?
     This is one of those quiet books, one that makes us feel like we’re sitting in a table just over in the corner observing all that is coming to pass.   We, too, are regulars and have come to expect things of the staff of The Hills and now we sit with our spoon half way to our mouth staring.