A n d r e w   W y n c h

A Deal is a Deal

With rent and out-of-state tuition to pay and a gas-guzzling Dodge Durango to satiate, my summer-job desperation had led me to coffee hell. I needed money and I needed it fast.

 Each morning my task was simple – reach a $32 threshold in the cash register and be rewarded with a living wage. 

 With only $7 to go before I reached the threshold and 30 minutes to make it, my optimism was uncharacteristically high. A family of four, each craving the most expensive item on the menu, had offered me my first chance all summer to break the threshold and be paid $8 an hour.

 They ordered their sandwiches, and I began slathering peanut butter, fruit and chocolate on the toasted wheat bread. Barely able to balance the four different sandwiches on my arms, I waddled over to their table in the far corner of the otherwise empty café.

 “Thanks,” the mother said with a smile. The children’s eyes lit up in excitement.

 Knowing my bosses were watching on the Orwellian webcam above, I informed them I was about to break the threshold.

 I looked at the clock. My shift was scheduled to end.

 As if on cue, my employer entered and examined the register's balance.

 “I thought you said you had reached $32,” the Natasha Fatale look-alike said in her thick Russian accent.

 “The family in the front hasn’t paid yet. They ordered, though. Doesn’t that count?”

 “A deal is a deal, Andrew,” she said. “If it's not in the register, we aren't counting it.”

 Dejected, I reached out to collect my measly pay.

 As I walked toward the cafe's front door, past the ghost town of vacant seats, the family stopped me. The mother was holding a $10 bill in her hand. Apparently she had overheard my situation.

 “You deserve this,” she said, “I'm sorry you have to go through that.”

 Smiling, I drove my tank-like car to the nearest Starbucks and ordered a piping hot coffee.

 I deserved it.

Andrew Wyrich is the Editor-in-Chief of The New Paltz Oracle. His work can be viewed at andrewjwyrich.wordpress.com. Shoot him an email at: andrew.wyrich@gmail.com.