“You’re fired! Get off my clock! Goodbye and good luck.”
I winced again, the piercing words still ringing in my head, as if she had said it only moments ago.
I felt certain that even the general manager had realized the injustice of her actions, but that didn’t dull its sting, nor, on her part, the distaste she held for me.
I had fairly easily talked her into keeping me, but she still made me feel like a criminal. And ever since, the very thought of my job, or even just the sight of the logo was depressing and sickening, despite the fact that I was still working.
Those words were the last thing I ever wanted to hear; in my experience, if someone was to be fired they deserved it. I had seen several coworkers fired in the last five weeks-one for theft, one for laziness, and another for unreliability.
I determined that none of those accusations would ever be brought against me, yet despite all my attempts and eagerness, the general manager had still charged me with laziness.
And now, out of the blue, I was being transferred from my second location-her headquarters-to a third: Elden Bridge.
I had heard of Elden Bridge. It was located somewhere in the older part of the city, and managed by some chick they called Trudy.
I remembered that Terence, the night manager from my first location (known as Teramonte) had originally come from Elden Bridge, and was transferred back when he fell out of favour with the general manager.
My brow furrowed in thought when I realized that this had taken place on the same week that I had been transferred to the general manager’s headquarters at Indiana Spring. A new shadow began to creep into my mind.
Not only that, each new location got progressively farther from home as well. Teramonte, fifteen minutes; Indiana Springs, twenty; and now Elden Bridge, thirty.
“Gas prices are making it hardly worth it,” I thought, “but they said I’m replacing someone who worked a lot of hours. Maybe I’ll get the 35 they promised me when they moved me to Indiana Springs.”
I shook my head with disgust. This last week, Indiana Springs had given me a whopping nineteen hours-little more than half of what had been promised.
And maximum wage was eight dollars an hour. This job was becoming more of a hassle than a help. I hoped to God there would be some light at Elden Bridge; but something about it didn’t make me too optimistic.
The winding road emerged from the woods onto something of a more major road, and a sign informed me that the village shopping center was on the left. Pulling in, I followed the line of storefronts until I found it-a little suite near the end of the strip centre.
Here we go again. New crew, new setup, new methods, new environment…
Standing in the kitchen doorway, I tied my apron on and took in my surroundings. The sink sprayer looked like Teramonte’s, which made me smile.
The metal wall in front of me would be the walk-in cooler…the blue colour was somehow unsettling, and made the kitchen seem darker and narrower than I liked.
I opened the walk-in and stared, the unsettled feeling growing. After five weeks at the sandwich shop, I knew what kind of atmosphere I liked; but everything about Elden Bridge seemed dark-literally-starting with the walk-in. It was higher, but narrower than either of the others I knew, being scarcely three feet wide by four deep, but maybe ten high. Some walk-in.
Not only that, there wasn’t even a light inside! Both previous locations had featured lights!
Well, in that case, I hoped the door didn’t have a tendency to drift closed.
Upon letting go of it, I found that it remained unmoving; so I closed it again and assessed the sandwich “assembly line.”
My coworkers hardly seemed to notice me as I walked to the register. They looked kindly enough, but bore the unhappy air that seemed to be the general atmosphere of the place.
The register was old, and as I checked a customer out, I discovered that each button pressed resulted in an obnoxious “beep”-that is, once it decided you had punched the button enough to enter that item once…
It was during this time that I realized that my clerk account had been set up so that it didn’t allow me to remove items from the list that I had accidentally entered…which, considering the computer’s tendency to be difficult, was a nightmare.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized to the customer, “this is my first day here. They just transferred me from another location.”
“Not a problem,” the old man smiled, “they change the staff here all the time. There were a couple people here just last week and I heard they don’t work with this franchise anymore.”
I smiled and nodded…but something didn’t feel right.
I began to notice that everything around here was old and worn out.
The metal buckets which held the sauce bottles were split, their sides spread out like broken wings.
The toaster paddle, used for removing sandwiches, was cracked and bent down where the handle joined the paddle itself.
The toaster’s door groaned and fell open awkwardly, as if it planned on falling plumb off any day now; and the timer buttons beside it were hesitant to respond.
The knives were dull; and for no apparent reason, the bread oven suddenly let forth a earsplitting buzzing sound that may have been the timer, or may have simply been a small demon begging to be let out.
Stepping back into the kitchen, I checked the schedule, smiling as I noticed “Terence” near the top.
“Awesome!” I thought, “at least I’ll know someone…and he’s a good manager, too. And I don’t think he hates me.”
I looked for my name, to see if I would be working with him any time soon…
“That’s last week’s schedule,” a familiar snarl behind me made my scalp crawl. Looking back, I saw an unfamiliar face…but realized the voice seemed to be a cross between the general manager’s and her manager-in-training and sidekick back at Indiana Springs.
The woman behind me was short and stocky, like the latter; but her hair was blond and tied in a ponytail, like the former’s. Come to think of it, this creep’s expression resembled her’s, too.
As I watched, she took down the schedule and replaced it with the new one.
I felt the shadow creep back in as I noticed…Terence was gone, and I was in his place.
And that’s when I realized that I had been transferred to limbo…or worse. They had sent me to Elden Bridge: Where Sandwich Artists Go to Die.
