twenty-nine
Autumn
First,itwasakitchen fire at six in the morning.
It was small, but it left our culinary student, Sebastian, freaked out. He’d only been in a commercial kitchen for the summer, and his mistake had him reeling and thinking he could never be a chef, which I persuaded him was not true, and distressed that he might be fired (also not true). He was also troubled about the kitchen itself and the oven that was badly damaged and needed to be sorted through insurance. That left us an oven down for family breakfast, but it wasn’t the end of the world, just a lot of worrying by a twenty-one-year-old over quiche.
The fire fiasco was followed by a rogue opossum blocking access to the west bathrooms. No joke, he literally ran back and forth, hissing at anyone who tried to enter. And how did I solve this problem? Bacon. I could honestly say I solved a problem with bacon, and if that didn’t belong on my resume, I didn’t know what did.
I’d just told Hazel I’d been putting out fires all morning when, ironically enough, a pipe had burst in the east showers. I met Jack to see what a “small leak” meant and learned that “small” actually meant “big,” and “leak” was more relative to “flood.”
I looked at three campers standing helplessly with toiletry bags. “Y’all can use the west showers for now,” I spat out, exasperated.
A towel-clad Jack cursed with a clothed Cherry Lips Cheryl as they tried to quickly tighten a bolt with a wrench. I was busy wondering where he had pulled out the wrench when I snapped into action.
“So all those times I asked if there was a wrench in your pants or if you were just happy to see me, there was a literal wrench?”
“Shut up, smart-ass. The shut-off valve is out back.” Suddenly, three other showers were spraying water outward and up to the ceiling.
“I’m gonna—” I rushed outside to shut off the water supply. I came back to find water sputtering until it stopped spraying and dripped off. I held back laughter, taking the wrench from a soaked Cheryl and turning back to him. “Were you taking a shower when it—”
“Yep,” he said bitingly. Jack may have been our handyman, but he was bad at taking care of his own problems, so he was likely showering in the guest showers because he still hadn’t fixed the pipe to his bathroom. Now he was probably regretting that fact.
He went to turn the water supply back on once it looked like things were under control, and despite not being knowledgeable about plumbing, I chose to look up into the shower head right as water splattered out, spraying me in the face.
Jack came back to the mess and cracked up at the image of his best friend taking on the appearance of a wet dog.
“Your towel is slipping.”
He grabbed it quickly and glared when he realized I was just fucking with him.
Felicia walked in and whistled until she saw our soaked faces. “Why aren’t you using your shower?”
“Plumbing issue,” he said wryly. What a joke.
I pushed a lock of dripping hair. “Cancel that shower, Jack. This place is underwater as it is.”
It wouldn’t be the last day if it wasn’t a shit show.
Onthelastdayof each session, we made enough food for families to join in for breakfast, which meant that many arrived early. After greeting newcomers and helping people load cars, I caught my breath next to the welcome sign. It only took a moment for me to realize I hadn’t heard from my bosses in a while, which could either be good or bad.
“This is Autumn for Leo.”
“Leo speaking.”
“Did you need anything—Mom?”
I recognized that bob anywhere. My stepmom had passed me by, turning as she heard me. She held hands with my dad.
“I’m not your mom, Autumn,” Leo returned. “In a better world—”
I lowered the sound on my walkie and turned to the woman pushing her sunglasses up onto her head. Her face brightened when she saw me. She looked pristine in her signature floral scarf and her favorite silk top and Bermuda shorts combo.
“What are you doing here?” I said, exasperated, all tact gone.
“We waited fifteen minutes to park, Autumn,” my dad griped, his face a twinge redder than I was used to. Great. This busynesswas normal on the last day, but this was not the first impression of Starlight I wanted for my parents after they finally visited. Arriving during a clusterfuck, just the thing to make this place look reputable. Why were they here?
“I know, Dad.”
