blog of Joe cz Liao

Few days ago my brother and I were at a Ramen place. As we waited for our orders I noticed that one waitress, not old at all (I say early twenties), looked rather worn out. I also noticed that she dropped things twice in five minutes, and wasn’t walking particularly straight (banging into chairs). When she finally bought our meals over I was certain that her thumb was dipping in the soup; when she was putting the bowl onto the table she poured some soup onto herself, which she didn’t seem to notice.

After that, she disappeared for a while. Soon later she walked out from the back of the restaurant, changed into casual clothes, and exited the restaurant speedily. She went right towards her bicycle, which was parked right outside the large window our seat was next to. The bicycle she picked up had a baby seat at the front, and another on the back.

Through the glass, I got to see her closely (also because I was no longer paying attention to the soup). She was exhausted. There was barely a glint in her eyes…