Percival Chapter One Part Five

The manager went to the register and placed his manager’s key into its lock and the drawer popped open. He took out an empty blue bag hidden in the recesses of the tray and put most of the cash inside, keeping enough to give change for the remaining customers.

“You can go at eight tonight, if you wish. Don’t forget the shifts that you picked up this weekend,” said Mr. Silverman

“I won’t,” replied Percival.

He would have to stick around until Franco got out to get a ride back. Percival waited until eight and then shut down the cafeteria, by closing off the red velvet rope. The dishwashers were in the kitchen cleaning, when Percival went in to clock out. Grabbing a dish towel, he moved next to a huge stack of trays and went to work.

Franco whistled as he trotted by, but didn’t stop to help, instead he adjusted the dial of a small radio duct-taped to a barstool and cranked it up as loud as it would go. A deep Spanish voice reverberated throughout the kitchen. He was singing about his girlfriend leaving him. Franco started moving his hips in time to the music and lip synced to the song. Mr. Silverman walked out of his office just in time to see Franco pick up a dirty fork with a green bean attached to it, using it like a microphone.

“Are you going to make love to that green bean or are you going to clean it? And Percival you better have clocked out,” he said over his shoulder, and went past Franco and into the cooking section. “Hey Eduardo, you better dump that grease tonight.”

Franco threw the fork into the sink, splashing pasta sauce water onto the wall. “I tell you Percival, he has no passion. Look at him. You can tell that man has no rhythm. His knee caps don’t bend.” Franco grabbed a broom and started dancing around the room.

“Come over here and help me stack these,” said Percival and flung his dishrag at Franco.

“You are all about work.” But he moved over to the stack of dishes putting his broom down against the side of the sink. “You need to have a little fun every now and then.”

“What are you talking about? I go out and have fun all the time. In fact I went out with you last Wednesday and had a beer down the street.”

“That’s bullshit! You whined the whole time when I said that I wanted to stop in and have a beer.” He took his hands out of the sink and waved them around. “I need to go home and study. Wa wa wa.”

Percival laughed and looked into the sink. “Well I went in didn’t I.”

“Why don’t you come over and watch the fight, eh? It would be fun.”

“I’m not into boxing. I’ve got things planned this Saturday anyways.”

“What do you have planned. Ah, a senorita perhaps? Well good for you Don Juan.”

“It’s not a girl. There’s a movie that I want to see. It’s coming out this Friday. You’ve heard of it. The Beast Two.”

“Sounds like crap. I haven’t even heard of The Beast One. Come on over, its better than sitting in that crappy motel all night.”

“I’ll think about it.”