My name is Tom, I’ve worked at McDonald’s for a pretty long time. It was the only normal option that I had in our tiny little town. Well, at least it was normal, until that one night shift.
That night I was set to the Mc-Drive stance. My manager likes to stick me there… tho I find it pretty comforting. The job is basically to sit on a chair next to the intercom, get the order from the customers outside, make it, and serve it to the customers through the reception window. It’s much better than working at the counter with all of these extra ketchup-and-mayonnaise requests, and much much better than cleaning the whole store. So I don’t have complaints.
The time was 11 pm, soon my shift would be over, I was leaning on the windowsill playing on my phone. Our branch is at a pretty isolated place outside of town so we don’t have that many people coming by, especially during these hours. Suddenly, the intercom bell rang, which means that someone is outside with his car and wants to order. I open my microphone and say: “McDonald’s, Tom speaking, what would you like to order”? from the other side I could hear the voice of a tired middle-aged man “Hey.. yes.. give me one large fries and one large coke”, “No problem Sir, It’s 12$. And your name is”? “Bob.” he says. “Okay Bob, please move forward with your car to the reception window and wait”.
That one is a piece of cake, I’m rushing to the kitchen, grabbing fries that were ready in advance and pouring into a large cup of Coca-Cola juice from the machine. As I step towards the window I see a police car, and in the driver’s seat, there is this fat cop who is waiting for his healthy mid-night meal. He looks exhausted, “tough night?” I ask him to break the ice. He sighs, “Yea… just getting back from a harsh scene, terrible car accident”. “Oh god, are there any fatalities?”, as response, he takes his fat finger and slides it around his neck, I got the meaning. He pays me, I hand him his fatty bag and he drives away. You know, one of the interesting things about working at Mc-Drive is that I get to hear a bunch of different stories from a variety of people. One time it’s a cop, another time it’s a lawyer and once in a while it’s a drunk homeless guy who thinks that the window is the main cash register and yells at us when we try to explain to him that this cashier is for cars only.
The branch has returned to be empty and quiet, I was playing on my phone, waiting for the shift to be over. After a few minutes, the intercom rang again. “McDonald’s, Tom speaking, what would you like to order?”… but there is no response from the other side of the line, just a wired white noise… it’s odd. “Ummm hello? how can I help you?” but the white noise is still there, no response. It’s so weird I tell myself, maybe the microphone has stopped working… But a moment before I get out from the store to check it up, I hear a low voice on the intercom. “Hello” a man’s voice says from the other side of line, “Hey, good evening” I respond. “My family and I would like to order please”, “Okay, what would you like?”. After a few moments of silence the man says: “Me and my wife will have a double Big-Mac meal with fries and Coke, and two Happy Meals for the little two on back”. I’m writing down the order and say, “Okay it’s 40$, What’s the name?”, “Just write The Goldberg Family,” he says, “Okay. please move forward with your car to the reception window and wait for the order to be ready”.
Back to the kitchen, I turn on the oil heater and pour to it some frozen fries and fry frozen processed meat. When everything is ready, I put it all in a large carton bag and step towards the window. When I got there, I lean my head out of the window and saw an old car moving towards me slowly, the model is a white Honda Civic with a lot of tin blows on it. It looks like they didn’t even bother to take it to the garage or something. But who am I to judge other people, I work at the most doubtful place that exists after a whore.
The car stops near the window, and the father opens the car’s window. “Hey! Goldbergs here” he smiles, “Hey, I’m Tom”. He keeps staring at me with his smile without saying a word, I can hear the crickets from the embarrassing silence. “Umm okay.. It’s 40$ please,” I say to break the silence… “Uh right, right,” he says and opens his wallet, searching for money. As he continues to search for his money, one of the two kids suddenly yells “Daaaad! I’m hungry” and then his younger sister yells too “Yes daddy, bring the food!!”, their mother quickly turns her head to them and says: “Here, in a moment you’ll have your food”, the dad looks at me with a shameful look and apologizes: “Sorry for this… we are starving to death, we had one hell of a ride”, “All good” I smile to him.
While he continues to look for his lost money in his wallet, I leave their order on the inside floor under the window until they’ll pay. Suddenly I’m starting to smell this awful smell of something burned like something is burning really strong. I turn to the family, “I’m sorry I got to check something”, before they reply I’m already running to the kitchen, ready to see the damage I did, God… I probably forgot to turn off the oil heater. But as I got there, the smell was no longer there.. nothing has been burned down and the kitchen looks normal as always, this is so wired. After a moment I remembered that I have to get back to the reception window to complete the payment and deliver the family their order. But as I returned to the window, the Goldbergs were no longer there. Their bag is still on the floor and they didn’t leave the cash for it. I took my head outside from the window and there was no sign of them or their old rusty car.
A few moments after my shift was over, as I was driving home I thought to myself, Why the hell they leave without taking their meals if they were starving, and also from where did this weird smell coming from… so wired.
In the morning after I arrived at a morning shift, again in the McDrive stance. As I step inside the branch’s main entrance, I see all the staff and my manager gathering around the small TV screen. It was a news broadcast. It’s rare that something happens in our little sleepy town so it must be something serious that occurred. The broadcast begins, the anchor’s face is serious and with a dramatic pose, she says: “A tragic car accident has taken the life of a whole family”, Oh God, I’m thinking to myself, It must be the accident that the policeman talked about.
But then, A video footage of the event is being played on the screen. In the video, there are a lot of emergency forces, surrounding a vehicle that is on fire. And the vehicle… the vehicle is white.. Honda Civic… with a lot of tin blows on it… Just like the Golberg’s one. As I’m trying to figure out what the hell is going on, the anchor continues: “The Goldberg family were on their way from a long road trip, and all they wanted was to stop by at the close McDonald’s branch just around the corner. But a few moments before, their car suddenly deteriorated to the side of the road… and the result was fatal. The vehicle crashed into an electric pole that was at the corner. Because of their high speed, the pole collapsed on the car and blew up, and the car caught fire, leaving the Father, Mother, and their two children to burn to death”.
The report ended. I stare at the TV screen, still can’t believe what I just heard. mumbling to myself, What the hell… Th.. They died?.. I’m.. ca.. cannot be true.. I saw them alive yesterday… they did make it to the branch… I fu*king took an order from them.. and.. a--, Suddenly, before I can finish my mind, The intercom bell rings. It takes me a few seconds to realize… and it rings again. “Tom!” my manager accelerated at me “What are you waiting for?! There are customers outside. Answer them!”. With my hand shaking and my heart beating fast as hell, I open up the microphone and say: “M.. McDonald’s, Tom speaking, What would you like to order?”, But then.. I hear this voice again, It’s the Dad: “We didn’t take our meals last night… Can you bring us food? We are so.. so.. so.. HUNGRY”.
End.