After about 10 minutes I heard Henderson push his chair back and I turned around as he walked out unto the balcony towards me. “Sorry to keep you waiting” he said as he stood for a moment to look down the street. “Lets go downstairs” he said turning to walk back inside obviously expecting me to follow. I trailed obediently behind him as he walked across the room and down the stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs, he stopped for a moment and took a bunch of keys out of his pocket before continuing into the ground floor bar and through the doors into the back of house area. He stopped at a door and opened it using one of the keys on the bunch. As the door swung open I saw that this was where the stock was kept. There were stacks of unopened cartons and cases of beer, soda and water. I was mystified, why would he bring me in here?
“This is the stockroom” he said clearing his throat as though he was a bit uncomfortable. “Ok…….?.” I said looking at him enquiringly, he looked at me for a moment then quickly looked away. “I will need you to take over from Mary for a while, she takes care of this stuff but shes going to be gone from tomorrow” It finally became clear to me that he was offering me a job! ‘Ok’ I said again. He abruptly handed me the bunch of keys then picked up up two cases of Carib beer and headed out the door.
I trailed after him as he walked over behind the bar and deposited the cases on the floor. He opened the cooler and pointed inside, I leaned over and looked. There were beers in there – Mostly Heineken, Banks and Red Stripe but I noticed there wasn’t a lot of the blue and yellow Carib beer cans. “You need to check the cooler and shelves and restock before each shift, no one else must be in that room unless you’re there – keep it locked” he said gruffly.
Moving over to the cash register, he pulled the drawer open and showed me the cash “this is the float, count it” he said as he pulled a sheet from under the register and handed it to me. I took the sheet and saw that Maco’s name was written at the top in his neat script. Each bill denomination was written in and the amounts totaled and the float discounted. As I counted the cash I saw that there were rolls of silver dollars, I figured that they were for the pool table. “All good?” Henderson asked. “Yes its correct” I said putting the cash back into the drawer. “Ok you’ll work along with Maco tonight but tomorrow night the 7 O’clock shift is yours” he hesitated for a moment “Its $150 per week, you’ll get paid on Fridays” he looked at me enquiringly as though he expected me to say something. Nothing came to my mind so I nodded. “Don’t forget to lock up” he said pointing to the open storeroom as he walked away.
To be continued..
Tales from the Qrypt – Nicole Prt 3
