An Inadvertent Mother’s Day Message From Line Cook Phil

PHIL’S RETIRED. He doesn’t really have to work anymore, he says. But his proclivity for spending his free time in self-destructive ways led him back to a part time job. Just to have something to do. He went back to work at the diner where he had his first paying job as a dishwasher many years ago, when he was seventeen. Not much as changed at the diner. The food is still made the same way. The menu hasn’t really changed. Phil is a line cook. And he loves it. He says he doesn’t have to think about anything. He does his job, goes home, and doesn’t think about work. But not today. Something has been weighing on his mind. And you’re not gonna believe this, he says. There’s a new teenager in the dish pit now. He’s been there for a few weeks. The other day, the dishwasher was tasked with the routine deep clean of the kitchen floors. He complained the entire time, not getting much if any of the floor cleaned, Phil says, lamenting this as ‘the hardest day of work in his life.’ Getting no sympathy from the crew, the dishwasher starts complaining to his mom who also works at the diner and had gotten him the job. Before long, mom starts doing the kid’s work. Then the kid starts talking down to his mom. And at this point, Phil says, it took everything every ounce of energy he had to not pop the kid in the mouth. Phil’s hands are tied. The mom excused the kid’s behavior as being ‘from another time.’ Management policy prevents Phil from stepping in to say or do anything. But he’s gotta do something. This kid just simultaneously broke Phil’s top two rules in life: Do your job and never disrespect your mother. // JAMES MUNK