One beautiful sunny afternoon I spontaneously volunteered to help out at a restaurant. A group of 5 people came in insisting to sit a particular table that was set for 8 people. My mother-in-law was to wait on them and I was to observe how it was done.
Being at such a large table I had difficulty hearing and I had to walk around the table whenever anyone spoke to me. The people were very nice but somewhat passive aggressive as I think on it now. They demanded a lot of attention with a variety of questions. One woman in particular seemed to be the leader of the group - early 50's, gregarious, shoulder length brown curly hair with 2 ears on the left side of her head.
In a relatively short time the restaurant had filled up and my mother-in-law excused herself leaving me with this group. I had to go to the kitchen often in order to get the answers to her various questions on fish and wine. At one point while in the kitchen I discovered her to be standing beside me as if that's where she belonged. I commented on the pretty young lady that was in her party and inquired as to whether she was ready to order yet. The lady made the comment that she wasn't so young and I said to me - she felt to be about 18 years old. The Lady said "Oh, So you're a feeler then, well I've always felt her to be 80 years old" and I accepted what she was saying as quite natural. She walked away and when I went back to the table to finish getting their orders, they had all left.
Under a glass was a small note saying that this had been a test and if I had any questions to call 342-0435. At that point I was close to tears and started cleaning off the table. It was nighttime now and the room was full of shadows making it difficult to see clearly.
A rock glass slipped from my left hand and my son suddenly appeared on his knees picking up the glass and before I could stop him he had cut his fingers and then he was gone. I retrieved a broom and dustpan to sweep it up but the little chunks stuck to the floor and so I knelt down and patiently picked up one piece at a time, carefully putting them in the dustpan - crying all the while because I felt like such a failure. That's when I woke up feeling very dejected and hurt and crying.
Catherine
