Bus Boy: The Delta King

I'd applied everywhere I could apply downtown and I'd even applied at the mall. I'd gotten a job, only to find out I hadn't gotten it and I was growing desperate.
I had recently discovered Sacramento's great bike trails and this provided at least some escape. I'd head through Old Sacramento, a tourist trap that I usually avoided, to catch the trail and ride along the river when I got tired of searching for work.
I noticed lots of restaraunts in Old Sac and decided I'd see about getting a job there abouts. I applied at The Delta King, a river boat that's permenantly docked and used as a hotel, restaraunt and theatre. I had my interview and then I recieved an orientation which included a history of the boat and a warm welcome to the tourism industry, and industry which could see me one day working on cruise ships. I was having a hard time getting excited but I was glad to be working. The boat didn't employ a chef, but they were trying to seem fancy so they didn't use the word cook. They had a food preperation manager. The guys in the kitchen were actually pretty cool. They were in school, they would someday be chefs, and they would leave the boat behind. The waitstaff were the opposite. They were older, they're drinking or crank habits had gotten the best of them, and they were working on the boat having blown it at much nicer places. Nobody wanted to wait on tourists. The tips sucked, and you knew you weren't cultivating any kind of relationship with regulars. But they were nice enough if you didn't get in their way.
Management was another story. The owner let his brother, Charlie Coyne manage the boat. Charlie was an asshole. But there will be plenty of time to expand on that.
I recieved a tour of the boat and I began bussing tables. I was given the responsibility of showing up at 6am to lay out the continental breakfast: cereal, milk, fruit, o.j. coffee, muffins, newspaper. This took about 10 minutes. Then I sat around for about an hour before packing it all in and heading home only to be back two hours later for the lunch shift. The two hours were just wasted time, not enough time to really do anything. This kind of split shift b.s. was a major part of the Chalie Coyne management technique.
Another Coyne strategy was to not hire from within. He said he wouldn't promote a bus boy to waiter because then he couldn't keep a good bus boy. This is of course completely moronic and the bus boys would quit to work at a nice restaraunt where they had a shot at moving up.
I know I was a wreck myself at the time having not recovered from Christine's departure and I'm sure it effected my work, but I recieved no complaints. I took the occasional break to cry in the bathroom, I quit smoking, I did anything I could do to feel better.

I got to be friendly with the staff and I enjoyed sitting on the upper deck of the boat with a cup of coffee watching the water go by. Being by the river was great. I often took bike rides after work. Then one day, my bike was gone. I was sure it was an inside job. I locked the bike to a fence made of thick steel, about twice as thick as your average chainlink fence. The steel had been cut and I found it hard to believe that someone had wandered though Old Sac carrying the kind of bolt cutters you'd need for such a job. The maintainence staff had plenty of tools. I got someone with keys to help me seach all the boats storage areas. The worse part was, I was already saving up for a bike, since this one belonged to Christine. Now I would have to replace her bike before I could get myself a new bike.
Charlie was unsympathetic, as one would expect. I didn't expect him to buy me a new bike, I just wanted some concern, some promise to look into a safer place where we could park our bikes. What I got was a quick denial of any responsiblity despite the fact that I'd not once tried to pin any responsiblity on him or The Delta King.
A week later the wait staff was invited to have lunch downstairs for free. I was one of the first to get a break so I headed down and found a buffet that was a bit tired looking but worth the price. I finished and headed back upstairs. Jack, one of the waiters, saw me and asked if I'd eaten from the buffet. When he heard I had he shook his head in dismay.
"Never eat food that Charlie offers you man. That food is from a meeting, yesterday, and it sat out all night."
Sure enough that night I began to feel sick. I felt bad enough by morning to have my mom take me to see a doctor. My parent's health insurance would cover me until I was 21 if I lied and said I was in school. The doctor said it was food poison and I asked him to write me a note. The not excused me from two more days of work, but I showed up the next day ready to go. Charlie fired me, or rather, Charlie had one of the waiters let me know I'd been fired. I marched to Charlie's office with my note to let him know that he couldn't legally fire me when I had a doctor's not excusing my absence. Charlie wasn't in. His secretary gave me an appointment but when I showed up at the appointed time Charlie wasn't there. I cursed his cowardly name and went about finding myself a new job.

>>>>Go to next job, where I incriminate myself!>>>