The Toothache Diary

INTRO




The vast majority of what you’ll read in the following pages is true. A good part of what you’ll read is also false. You see my friends, I have the easy part; I write the story. I tell it how I want to tell it. You my friends have the difficult task of deciding whether what you’re reading is real or fake. Shall we begin……





CHAPTER 1





“regina…regina…Regina..REGINA!!!”
“Yes ma’am I’m sorry…what did you say?”
“I said your orders are up…hand them out the window! You’ve been stirring that same cup of oatmeal for over 2 minutes. LETS GO!!!
“Yes ma’am. I’m sorry, I just…”
“Don’t apologize, just do it…”

As you can probably tell by now, today is not a very good day. My day has barely started. I’ve barely been here an hour and I’ve already screwed up three orders and managed to sink my drive-thru teams record times down the shitter. I’m supposed to be a crew trainer.
“Ma’am”
I’m supposed to be better than this.
“Ma’am”
I have a serious problem..you see..
“MA’AM!!”
“WHAT?! I mean yes ma’am is there something wrong?”
“Uh..yeah. You forgot my coffee. You gave me my oatmeal, which by the way is too runny, but I don’t have time for you to fix it. I’m already late for work.”
“I’m sorry ma’am. Um, what size was it again? I forgot sorry..”
“LARGE!!! Three cream, three sugar!!!”
“Hey you don’t have to yell lady!!!”
Uh-oh. Here comes Ms. Boss Lady. She’s the store manager. Just like a damn hawk. Sees and hears everything.
“Whats going on now, Regina?”
“Nothing…drive-thru is moving along just fine, Here’s your coffee ma’am. Nice and fresh for you. Have a wonderful day!!”
I close the window on that yuppie bitch. Good riddance.
“Regina come with me to the office, we need to talk”
Another uh-oh. This cant be good. Anytime Ms. Boss Lady says “we need to talk” you better watch out. Last person I heard her tell that too got “suspended”. Funny thing is, he never came back from suspension.
“Regina, I’m gonna cut right to the chase. It’s almost time for you annual review and possible promotion. To be perfectly honest, I don’t have anything positive to report. For the past two to three months you have been repeatedly late, your work performance has deteriorated and you’ve had three customer complaints in less than a month. You’re sluggish, slow and you need help with smallest task. My God its like you’re a zombie, You were once one of my best crew trainers. No one could touch you in that window. Now the “newbs” can out do you. Plus, we got corporate inspections coming up nest month. I need you on top of your game. Are you sick? Is that what it is? Maybe you should see a doctor.”
“No I’m not sick. I’m just tired is all.”
“Tired?”
“Yes tired…I just need some time off to rest..”
“Regina, you just got back from vacation. You claimed you rested then. But to be honest, you came back looking worse than before you left! Look I’m sorry but you gotta get yourself together, You’re better than this. You know it and I know it. You’re better than this Regina.”
“I know…you’re right. I’m gonna do better. I promise. I’ve just been so tired…”




Tired. That’s what I tell Ms. Boss Lady. That’s what I tell everybody. Whenever someone asks “Whats wrong?’ or “Why you look so down?” I just say I’m tired. Hmmmm. If they only knew. It’s more complicated than that. You see, I have a problem. A condition. I have my own “method” of dealing with it. And it’s a secret. I’m too ashamed to tell anyone what’s really going on. They wont understand. They might begin to judge me. I hate being judged….