The Tip

Ayumi couldn't believe that she was here again, hiding out in the alley way nestled between last night's special and grease covered boxes tossed out during the morning rush. Glamorous, no, but the brief peace and quiet it afforded her while taking a drag on her cigarette was worth it. She chuckled, the scene and smells were familiar, but 15 years ago she would have laughed at anyone telling her she would be casually smoking a hand rolled, cbd and mugwort filled cigarette. "Shit" she muttered as a rat rushed out from beneath one of the boxes and scampered over her shoe. As she stood there contemplating if the 5 second rule applied to cigarettes, she heard a familiar screechy voice call her name. Tiffani with an "I", the most annoying host she had ever met in all her years as a server. She squeezed back thru the door, into the kitchen and hastily grabbed an empty cup filling it with ice and water. "Who's calling me??", she yelled, " I'm in the weeds, I need to get this to table 12!" Tiffani looked at her, rolled her eyes and screeched, " table 12 requested their check, so I printed it for them...they paid and left about 15 minutes ago. Thought you should know." "Oh! And please clear your table, we have a two top that needs to be sat!" Busted, she took a sip of the water and strolled over to table 12 to see if they had left a tip. When she made it to the table she noticed that the check slip lay on the table on top of small black book. She picked up the slip, no tip. So she picked up the book to see if they had left it inside. Nothing there either. She took the book to the host stand, "Hey Tiffani, I think that they left this behind, can you keep it up here incase they come back?" Without looking up from her seating chart, Tiffani mumbled "Oh no, they said that that was for you."Ayumi sighed. The creative ways that people often found to not tip never ceased to amaze her. She took the book and shoved it down into her apron without another thought.

Exhausted Ayumi stumbled into her apartment, laid face down on the couch and tossed her apron onto the floor. As usual, she was sore, covered in food debris, sticky condiments and drinks and for some reason smelled like old cheese. "I can't keep doing this." she muttered into the couch cushion. With a deep breathe, she sat up and dumped the contents of her apron out. Out slid table 12's small black book. She picked it up, muttering to herself about the nerve of the two young teens who had left her the tattered book. Casually flipping thru the pages, she suddenly noticed written in small neat black letters "Hello, Ayumi" written halfway down the middle of a page towards the middle of the book. Nothing else, just "Hello Ayumi". She rolled her eyes and muttered, " Way to be a creep AND not tip table 12". She sighed, glancing back at the page, when she noticed new letters forming on the page. They spelled out "Sorry, we didn't mean to creep you out, but you have definitely been tipped. Well." Ayumi yelled, threw the book across the room and looked around her apartment. Breathing frantically she yelled to no one, " This isn't funny and I have a gun!" A lie of course. She backed up shakily to the wall behind her, never taking her eyes off of the book.

Finally after what felt like an eternity of entertaining her wildest nightmares, Ayumi slowly released her breathe. She was tired, exhausted really, she had to have imagined it. Right? Timidly Ayumi crawled towards the book, which lay open and sprawled against the wall. She took a deep breathe and slowly picked the book up again, forcing herself to peer into the page. Nothing. The page was completely blank. She slumped down, her body relaxing, "I must have imagined it. I really need to get some sleep", she groaned. Just then the words "We agree!" flashed across the page. Eyes wide, Ayumi looked down at the words in horror and yelled, "Who are you?? Why did you leave me this book?!" Slowly the words, " We are the watchers. We have been watching you." appeared on the page. "But why?", asked Ayumi. "Because you asked us to." was the quick reply. She snorted, "I asked you? I don't even know who you are! If this is some new age ransom, I don't have any money!" Tears flooding her eyes, she squeezed them tightly, the honesty of that last statement hitting her hard. This year had been rough, she had lost everything and everyone. Finding herself back working a gig she swore 15 years ago she never would again, 15k in debt and behind on all her bills. The one perk of work being that she received free meals during her shifts...even if they were greasy and barely edible. A life she never imagined she would be living...before. But the concept of before seemed like an alternate universe at this point, if only she could pay off her debts and pay for her re-certification , then maybe... Ayumi's eyes flew open, she realized that she had started to doze off. She looked back at the page, this time the words remained on the page. "You said that I had definitely been tipped, how?" , she said dryly. "She looked down, "You need only request." was written on the page. "Request what?", she asked growing more frustrated. "Your TIP" wrote the watchers. Ayumi laughed, half delirious and half wild from the thought of requesting what she wanted her tip to be from "the watchers", whoever they may or may not be. " Ok, sure, then I'll take 20 thousand!", she blurted out. And as quickly as she said it, before she could think of what she had even said, the words "As you wish" appeared on the page. The book then vanished and in Ayumi's lap rested a stack of crisp neat bills. She didn't have to count it, she was sure that it was $20,000. She sat shocked and then began to cry quietly to herself until she fell asleep. She woke up still sitting on the floor, the money in her lap. It was not a dream. She got up, took her apron, threw it on the stove, called into the restaurant and after hearing, "Hello, this is Tiffani. How can I -" , She yelled, " I QUIT!" , hung up and smiled her first genuine smile in a very long time.