It was my first day back at work at Bub City after more than 25 years.
I was introduced to the manager, a tall, slender brunette who welcomed me and told me I would be put in charge of the oyster bar.
I mentioned that I had been a vegetarian since 1990 and the woman smiled and said that was why I was being put in charge of the oyster bar seeing how I was a vegetarian it would be highly unlikely I would "skim off the top!"
We shared a laugh and the woman proceeded to show me how to assemble the oyster tray using real ice and fake oysters for demonstration purposes.
After we finished and I had successfully gotten the hang of prepping the tray, she told me to leave them in the freezer so I’d remember how to assemble the tray when I returned to work the next day.
The woman came back with my time card and showed me how to punch out.
On my way out, there was a table of Spanish speaking people sitting in front of the window beside the door.
An older woman stopped me and asked if I spoke Spanish.
When I told her I did, she asked me if I knew her son Robby who was from Argentina.
I said I did that he was an old friend I had known from the years I lived in Valencia.
I told the woman that her son had just been at the restaurant a few hours earlier helping me set up the new oyster station that I was in charge of.
I asked if her son knew she was here visiting and she said it was a surprise and that she and the rest of her family who were sitting at the table—perhaps ten or fifteen others—had just arrived from Buenos Aires and were going to surprise Robby at his house after they finished their meal.
I suggested that it would be an even bigger surprise if I called Robby and told him I had an emergency at the restaurant and asked him to come here right away.
The woman and the others at the table loved the idea so I went into the back and called Robby telling him that a part of the machinery on the oyster station had come loose and fell on top of my foot and that I was bleeding quite badly.
Robby said he would be there in ten minutes and rush me over to the emergency room.
I went back and told Robby’s mother that he fell for my ruse and that her son would be walking through the door in ten minutes.
Robby arrived and there was a big hullabaloo and his family greeted him with cheers and tears of joy.
Later, I found Robby in the kitchen sitting on the floor with my baby son who told me Robby was angry with me for tricking him and because of that he refused to play with him and he couldn't understand why Robby had rejected him.
I gave my son some clean empty oyster shells to play with while I went back into the restaurant to say goodbye to Robby's family.
Then I woke up.
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