Page 28 of Small Town Beast

“Come shut it for me,” Tanya said, squaring up with Kyle so fast he took a step back.

“One more word and you’re fired,” sputtered Kyle.

“Yeah, I’m so scared. Come on, Gwen. It smells like cheap deodorant out here.”

She practically dragged Gwen inside.

“Holy crickets, Tanya,” Gwen squeaked. “Are you okay?”

“No,” said Tanya, blinking back sudden tears. They returned to the stifling heat of the kitchen. To calm down Tanya repeated the mantra that someday she would be rich, driving a nice car to her five-bedroom house in Belle Hills, while Kyle would still be bullying teenagers in this dumpy restaurant. She’d have Amari back, and they’d go to Disneyworld, and maybe in between all that she’d meet a good man who was kind and loving and protective of her and her son.

“I hate him so much. He’s such a creep!”

“Talk about it,” Tanya agreed wearily.

“If I didn’t need this job…” Gwen sighed. She came from a bad family in town. Only the desperate would hire the daughter of a local troublemaker who was doing five years upstate for breeding lion cubs.

“I just hate the way helooksat me. You know?” Gwen shook her head. “And you know I heard he used to date a thirteen year old? That was like,last year.”

“I need to wash my hands,” Tanya said. “Touching all over that dog.”

“I need to wash my eyes, looking at that thing on Kyle’s face.”

Their giggling stopped when they reached the back kitchen doors. Tanya’s nose twitched. “Ugh! Something’s burning!”

“I smell it too,” gagged Gwen. The ladies stared at each other then shouted at the same time, “Rory!”

Tanya shoved open the kitchen door…and gasped. Gwen screamed.

“Help!” howled the new line cook, backing up and nearly knocking Tanya down to get away from the pillar of flameleaping up from the grill. The fire raged nearly to the ceiling. “Tanya, I didn’t mean it! I didn’t mean it!”

“Put that shit down!” Tanya snatched the bucket of water from the teenager’s hand.

In two steps she had thrown the water in the sink, hauled the fire extinguisher off the wall and jerked out the release pin. The blast covered the grill in a thick white cloud, quenching the fire and everything else it touched.

Tanya beat out the rest of the stray flames with a dirty towel, holding her apron over her nose and mouth. From the corner of her eye she saw a mouse dive for cover under the fridge. She hoped the roaches didn’t mind.

“Rory, you can’t put out grease with water, dumb fuck!” Gwen hollered pointlessly.

“S-sorry…I forgot about the f-fire extinguisher. Aw, shit…”

Rory stumbled past them to the bathrooms and a moment later came the sound of puking.

“Jesus, he scared the paint off me,” Gwen was shaking. “I thought he was a goner.”

“Me too.” Tanya remembered the scar on Mister Bailey’s face. Rory had come close to getting one to match. Tanya began to mop up the slimy mixture coating the grill. Luckily it was a slow day. As she went to get another bucket Kyle came in and bore down on the culprit.

“You useless jackass!” He shoved Rory into the shelving, sending steel cups and forks and knives clattering all over the floor.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Rory pleaded. “Please don’t fire me, Kyle. I’m too dumb to get another job.”

“I know it! Clean this fucking mess up!”

Tanya threw down the dirty rag and washed her hands. Then she went back out to Kyle.

“What do you want this time, sweet cakes?”

“This place needs more hands and you know it,” Tanya declared. It’s a mess. It ain’t right to be feeding people from that kitchen. Don’t take it out on Rory when you know it’s your fault we don’t have enough staff and the place ain’t clean.”

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