I don't need no instructions to know how to rock.

Headquarters

The door was open slightly, that door. The office at the end of the hallway, the one that they had all passed  by day after day, not noticing the person in it was slowly losing it mentally. Was quietly having a nervous breakdown, about  to crack. Seth had heard about him coming in with dark circles under his eyes, red eyes looking hungover, but that wasn't anything special. More than a few people in the office had come in after a weekend, especially a long weekend, looking that way so it hadn't raised his eyebrows much. Other than that his behavior had been unremarkable, Satisfactory. Nothing to show that Dave would show up drunk at the diner was the intent on killing Alex, and in the process get into an accident, killing Alex, involuntary and then killing himself. He had been working for the company for 15 years before that without incident. Without much notice at all really. Seth couldn't remembering hearing much of anything about him before he was promoted to district manager, he had been a general manager of one of their car washes before without much to distinguish himself.  That guy, a seemingly normal person, married for 20 years, had simply melted down in the course of a couple months.

It had taken him a long time to fully digest the whole situation. Dave gone, Alex gone, two fairly important positions to fill and each of them like to be filled from someone from the general public. The general public, what a truly terrifying prospect Seth thought, as he looked out onto the highway. Seth had another, slightly larger office, that faced the hallway as well. With a view almost the same as Dave's his window facing the south, Dave's the north. The general public, hell, there were a good portion of psychos among that group. And a small portion, small but still there, that were serial killers, criminals, or people who otherwise had plans steal as much as they could from the company, and it was up to a small group of people to figure out who stable ones were. Dave had been stable, Frank had been stable, it was impossible to asses who was truly stable, he was starting to believe. Still they needed someone to fill Alex's position at the diner, it had been too long. They are starting to think they don't even need a manager, which sets a bad precedent, Alex thought. Unfortunately that person had to be culled from the general public. A terrifying prospect.

Wait a minute, something occurred to him. We could compromise between the two, cousin Eric. Eric was blood and he had a good heart but always seemed to be lacking in direction. He had been working for the company since he was 15. It seemed early on like school wasn't something he was much into so they figured
they'd just put him somewhere in the family business. He had gotten fired the first time for stealing a case of beer. Of course later he apologized and they hired him back. Then they had moved him to the car wash and he had gotten fired for smoking weed in the back. After that they had moved him back to the gas station and they found out he was sleeping with one of the underage cashiers and she was threatening to to to the police. They had managed to sweep that under the rug, and finally they had him on 3rd shift at one of the gas stations where he could do whatever he wanted. Yeah, Eric that would work. Despite all of his faults he always showed up. We could make this work, Seth thought.


Fucking tickets! Ed thought as the printer spewed out another one. There were six hanging altogether. Let them fucking sit there, he thought as he flipped the steak. He already had a board full of them, and he was only one person. Why the fuck are there so many people in here? He thought to himself dropping some fries. Usually it was pretty quiet when he came in at midnight, maybe a few slips left over from the previous shift, but not much. Tonight, however had gone south from the start. He had woken up at quarter to 11, still hungover from the beer he had at lunchtime and barely managed to get up for the shift. He had a cup of black coffee for breakfast and headed over. There were a few cars out front when he pulled in but all and all it didn't look like much. When he had pulled up to the back and walked in the backdoor, he passed the cook from the previous shift coming out, a bearded fellow with a lazy eye, Ed had nodded and not thought much of it. It was 10 to midnight when he punched in but it looked like the guy had already left. He wasn't sure who it was, they had hired a few new people, and all of them seemed unstable. They hadn't had an official manager for a couple of weeks so he wasn't sure who was hiring these people.

The line looked like a bomb had gone off in it as he walked in. The grill black and covered with grease, everything empty on the line. Still the board was clear, or so it had appeared. A few minutes later he noticed it, the fucker had left five slips dangling in the printer and left. Ed had checked the time on some of them and some were from 11:30. What the fuck is wrong with these people? He thought. That had been the start, then more people had come pouring in. Then the waitresses from other shift had started asking where their food was, he had explained the situation and everything had gone out but it had gotten heated for a little bit. Now it was even worse. He put out the first two orders on the board, just 15 or more to go, he thought. It was now past one and it seemed highly unlikely he was getting any more help. Anyhow he had heard that the company was trying to cut labor, and their shift was the most likely to get cut. The other waiter John, worked alone some nights cooking and waiting tables.

Ed flipped a couple pancakes, I think I have half a joint in my car. He knew he smoked half of it before coming in but he could vaguely recall leaving the other half in his car before he left for work. It was all a haze, it usually was waking up in the darkness to get ready to work. Always felt somewhat off, unnatural. They hadn't hired a new manager yet though he heard someone was starting on Monday. Ed peered out through the window toward the dining room, a couple large parties had just walked in. Fuck, oh well, he thought I'm just one man, just gonna do the best I can.

That asshole still owes me fifty bucks Sam thought as he pedaled up the hill towards work. Mike had been ducking him for the past two weeks, avoiding eye contact and giving terse one words to anything he asked him. When they worked together he usually did prep in the back and now it seemed like he was doing this intentionally to hide. The first time he asked him for it he said he 'Forgot it at home,' the second time he said he'd have it Friday. When Friday had arrived he worked a morning shift, and had been gone when he'd gotten in for his shift. After that he'd just decided to stop speaking to Mike for a while except for work related things. He felt the sweat down his back as he came down the hill to work. One good thing about biking everywhere, he thought as he came through the parking lot to the diner, is you definitely lose weight. He gone down over 10 pounds already. Sam noticed Mike's car parked out back as he pedaled up to the shed, looks like he's on tonight. There was another car parked next to his also. One he hadn't seen before. Sam walked his bike over to the shed and pushed his bike inside. The shed was empty as he approached but the familiar stale smell of cigarettes greeted him as he entered.

Sam looked at his phone, ten minutes to four. A little time to spare, he thought as he sat down and reached into his backpack. As he took out his bowl he saw Mike emerge from the back of the diner. Fuck, he thought, but said nothing as he entered. 'Hey you want to smoke?' Mike said as he pulled out a large spliff from his shirt pocket and lit it. Sam nodded. 'Sorry about the money thing. I got you something.' Mike said as he handed Sam the joint. Sam took it and took a large hit. Mike pulled out a bag from his pocket and handed it to Sam. 'I had a little extra from a bag I got. Some Kush. Hope were ok now.' 'Yeah.' He passed the joint back to Mike. Eight minutes now, 'I heard we have a new manager starting.' Mike announced. 'Yeah I heard something like that too.' Sam replied. 'They said he's going to be on the line tonight, working with you.' That's weird, ok. 'You know what I heard also, is that he smokes weed.' 'No shit?' Sam replied. 'Yeah that's what they said.' Very interesting, Sam thought. Mike you are ok, Sam thought feeling the buzz from the weed. He had half a gram in a film canister in his bag but now he could save that for later, always a good thing. 'So he'll be with me on the line tonight?' Sam asked. 'Yeah, til midnight.' He nodded. They finished up the joint. He got up and headed towards the backdoor, a little more stoned then he would like to be but feeling ok.  He had dreamed of her again last night, that she was back. It had been just real enough to sting before he'd woken up. As a result he'd been in a kind of haze all day from it. Now it mixed with the haze from the weed as he went inside, mixing with the strong smell of grease and pancakes.

He walked through the back prep area to the office and punched in walking out to the line. Jim was the only person on the line, 'It's all yours bud.' Jim said to him as he walked over to the grill. He had a look of exhaustion on his face. 'Oh and were down to our last two bags of french fries.' Jim as he walked toward the office. 'Great.' Sam replied. At least they always keep things interesting in here. Not surprising, no one had ordered them. He wasn't sure who had been ordering everything for the past few weeks. Fuck now I have to meet a new person, Sam thought as he walked into the back freezer to check on what they did have, maybe sub out the fries for onion rings. Have to engage in small talk, attempting to find common ground on anything. When there was those lulls in the action, no tickets in the printer, those weird gaps which led to his least favorite question, 'So what do you like to do in your spare time?' 'Get fucked up.' Always struck him as probably not the best answer so he'd always make something up, reading, working out. It was like you somehow had to justify your existence to people, you can't only work 40 hours a week you had to have all these fucking outside interests too. Hopefully its busy for that reason alone. Doesn't look too bad Sam thought as he left the freezer. Enough stuff to sub in.

Sam saw him as he walked out to the line, a short guy maybe 5 feet tall at the most with a black social distortion shirt. 'Hi I'm Eric, I'll be with you out here tonight'. They shook hands. 'Just tell me what you need me to do, I am the new manager but tonight I'm here to learn how you do things here.' Sam nodded. Word, he thought, I like the sound of that. 'I was just grabbing what he need for tonight. You want to check the bread?' Eric nodded and went to work. He moved quickly, and he seemed to be on the ball. He lacked the dead eyed shuffle most some that they hired had. Eric went to work and in a few minutes they had everything they needed for the line. 'Hey just a quick question.' Eric asked as he walked back out unto the line. 'Do you burn? Smoke weed?' 'Yes.' Sam replied quickly. How the hell is this happening? He thought. 'We should burn later, you know after the shift?' 'Definitely.'

This is going way too good Sam thought as he flipped a burger. Something has to give. He still didn't have his license, but since biking to work he had lost almost 20 pounds and had even managed to stop drinking quite as much as before. And to add to all of that work had also improved. They seemed to be recognizing him more, he seemed to be getting more hours. Something has to give eventually, he thought, something has to go wrong. There is no way I can be allowed to have this much progress in such a short period of time, it has to be impossible. He put the order in the window, even tonight. They had managed to get through the first rush smoothly, and even later when it had been hectic they had done good. It was like they spoke the same language, understood the same code, knew each others rhythims. Around 10:45 after the last rush had ended, they had sat outside the back door for a smoke when Eric asked him, 'I think I'm gonna go for a beer, do you want one?' 'Sure.' Sam had replied and reached into his pocket for his wallet. 'No, don't worry about it, you can get me for the next one.' 'Sure.' He said.

No way this can last, Sam thought. He looked at his cellphone, it was almost quarter to 12 and Eric was still out there, somewhere. He hadn't had an order since 11:30 he was just curious if he was coming back. What could have happened. Something was bound to go awry somewhere he was sure of it. He would get hit by a car riding his bike home from work, or something would happen. There simply was no way this kind of relative prosperity could last. He walked outside the window to check on the menus, there was no one in the dining area. 'I'm going to step outside for a bit.' He said to the waitress, and walked outside. As he walked out the back he saw Eric with the six of tall boys he had asked for. 'For the end of the shift right?' Eric said as he handed him the six. 'Yup. Sam said. We speak the same language.