Episode One

Dursten Spills a Drink
Day One at the Honk’n’Holl’r

It was a restless night for Dursten even though he had a comfortable bed to sleep on for a change. “Must be nerves,” he thought aloud as he wiped the crusted sleep from his eyes. Rolling over to find within him the energy to get out of bed, Dursten happened to glance at the time. With a jolt, he shot out of bed cursing himself, “Perfect, day one and I’m gonna be fuckin late.”

After quickly cleaning himself up, he rushed down to the main desk to ask for the manager as he was instructed the night before. “Is Mr. Zoot in, I’m supposed to meet him here, I start work tonight,” Dursten said in a nervous voice.

The clerk gave him the once over with nose in the air and said, “Yes, he is. I believe he is in the Honk’n’Holl’r Sal’oon waiting for you.”

“I know I’m late, but I’m new here. Can you point me to the Honk’n’Holl’r?”

Giving him a roll of the eyes, she pointed and said, “There’s an FYI Pod directly across the desk, but if you follow the mezzanine through the Casino, the Honk’n’Holl’r is left of Galaxy Keno Room.”

Dursten followed her directions to a tee, but did not find the Sal’oon. The casino was huge, and with all the slots, tables, and everything else designed to raid one’s wallet, it took a couple of minutes to find another FYI pod. When he found one, he realized that the clerk sent him in the opposite direction altogether. “What a snotty bitch,” he thought.

Dursten finally made it to the Sal’oon where he noticed the manager sitting close to the bar. Dursten was thinking what a good impression he’d make being almost twenty minutes late, but the manager noticed Dursten walk in and stood to greet him.

“Sorry I’m late Mr. Zoot, I had kind of a rough sleep last night.”

“Don’t worry about it. I thought you would. You did look pretty bad last night. Oh, and, we‘re pretty informal around here so don‘t call me Mr. Zoot. My name’s Teph’lonn, everybody just calls me Teph. Listen, I did some calls about you, and I know who you were before the commonwealth fell which tells me you are way too qualified to be just a bartender, but I know you can never return to your old life. So, I’ve got an opening for a Night Manager. Interested?”

“Well, yes, I guess so.” Dursten replied quite nervously because he did not realize he would be discovered so quickly.

“Look, you have nothing to worry about, I’ve already talked to the General Manager, Que’enesh Ehba, and she is in agreement with me. She doesn’t like Lehst'r’s politics anymore than you do. You’re quite safe here.”

“We’ll, when do I start?” Dursten replied much more confidently. Teph’s voice was quite calming and friendly. Dursten was much less nervous, especially with what Teph had to say.

“You won’t officially start until next week. Our current night manager has a week left of his notice, so he’ll start training you for that tomorrow. He is off work tonight. As for tonight, we are still short a bartender, so you might as well jump back there. You’ll need to be able fill any position throughout the Inn anyway. It’ll be a good starting point.”

Dursten and Teph shook hands, and Teph followed up with the ‘Welcome to the Team’ pleasantries. Teph escorted Dursten to the bar and was introduced to all the working staff. Teph mentioned that the girl who was currently bartending was the Dining Room Manager, Buz’zee Magzwell who also night manages for the regular manager’s nights off. “Sorry to interrupt Teph, but no one has been able to find Tolby for over an hour, and room services are backing up in the kitchen,” Buz’zee said with hint of anger in her tone.

“That little shit!” Teph said with an irritated edge to his voice, and continued as he hurried off, “If he’s hiding again watching old vid’s again I’ll...”

Dursten looked at Buz’zee with a short smirk on his face and asked, “Does that happen lots with this Tolby guy?”

Buz’zee noticed the smirk on Dursten’s face and started to grin herself “Well, only lately the kid’s been screwing up a lot.” she replied. “A couple of months back he was in a transport accident and the kid just hasn’t been the same since.”

“Transport accident? Was he hurt bad?”

“No, he didn’t seem to be at the time. He was walking behind the hotel waiting for his lift to go home and he walked right into a loading transport that was just landing. We didn‘t even know he had had an accident till the next day ‘cause he was all bruised up. Anyway, I should get you started. The evening rush should be coming in shortly”

Dursten went behind the bar and followed Buz’zee’s instructions on where everything was, what order to do things in, and the like. Dursten had done some bartending while attending university, but found that he was quite clumsy and out of practise. Buz’zee took his nervousness in stride and made him feel quite comfortable as the evening progressed.

About an hour and a half into the evening rush, Teph made and an appearance in the sal’oon but looked a little red-faced with anger. Buz’zee looked directly at him and simply said, “Well?”

“I found him!” Teph replied. “I found him in main storage, curled up on a cot sound asleep.”

“Did you fire him?”

“NO, I was too pissed off. I wrote him up and sent him home. Que’enesh will have to deal with him tomorrow.”

Teph then announced that it was a long day, and that he was going to go home for the night, but asked if Buz’zee had everything covered or needed anything before he left. He even enquired if Dursten was doing okay. “He’s fine.” she said with a giggle. “He’s only spilled a double cognac, a Bombay Sling, and a Freddy Fuddpucker so far. I just wonder if the Inn can afford him?...Just kidding. He‘s not as green as you said he was.”

“Good, I’ll see you guys tomorrow then.” Teph turned away from the bar, said goodnight to the rest of the wait staff and a couple of regulars.
The rest of the night went without a hitch, but by the end of the shift Dursten was pretty tired and was glad to get to his room at the end of the night.

.....

Reality file:
-----Earlier last week our bellman did fall asleep in a storage room, and was found by another manager
-----He did get into a small accident a couple of months ago. He was riding his bike home and drove into a pick-up truck, no he wasn‘t hurt.
-----He has had a habit of disappearing lately, and turns his page radio off until he shows up.
-----No, he didn’t get fired, but was given one more chance to shape up (I found out by email from a co-worker). I have been on holiday’s from work and will probably have to deal with him when I return to work
-----My first bartending position (many years ago), I did spill exactly that round of drinks. My Head waitress made the ‘Can we afford him comment.’
-----My interview for my current position was exactly as short and to the point as Dursten’s (and I was 20 minutes late for it, but I got the job).

My Vents:
----As much as the bellman has been screwing up lately, he still is reliable and shows up every day at least. Lately, it has been very difficult to get staff, especially for positions like that. It took three months to even get a bellman last time we lost one.

Notes to readers;
I’ll try to post here as quickly as I can. Making the ‘reality file’ fit into a fictional framework might prove to be a little bit of a challenge, but I’ll keep pluggin away (please forgive grammatical errors, I‘m really not a writer, I‘m just having fun).
I’m thinking that the fastest I can update would probably be weekly, to post for early Monday morning. I think I’ll keep the format of the fiction for INN Space first, followed by the Reality File (which may not be chronological, just real events that I’ve formed into the fiction for that post. Then My Vents; which will be what either pissed me off about the incidents in the reality file, or why I found the thing funny in the first place, or usually both. And finally, Notes to readers: just info that I can relate to you about the blog, or why I can’t post this week, or format change etc, etc.

Regards,
foxxfyrre