Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5 I gave the three men my most grown-up smile. "Hi, I'm Hank," I said. "I'm new here." The man with the mustache looked up from his menu. "Kind of short for a waiter, aren't you?" he asked. "For a second-grader, I'm pretty average," I answered. "Heather Payne is the tallest girl in our class, but most of us are this size. Now, what would you like?" Mustache Man sighed and shut his menu. "I'll have two eggs over easy, bacon crispy, fruit, no potatoes, and an English muffin, hold the butter," he said. My ears nearly fell off my head. How was I supposed to write any of that down? I froze. I

我对那三个人报以最成熟的微笑。 “嗨，我是汉克，”我说。“我是新来的。” 留胡子的男人从菜单上抬起头来。 “你对服务员来说有点矮，不是吗？”他问。 “作为一个二年级的学生，我的成绩还算一般。”我回答。 “希瑟·佩恩是我们班最高的女生，但我们大多数人都这么高。 现在，你想要什么？”小胡子男叹了口气，合上了菜单。 “我要两个煎蛋，脆熏肉，水果，不加土豆，还有一个英式松饼，不加黄油，”他说。 我的耳朵差点从头上掉下来。 我怎么能把这些写下来呢？ 我冻结了。我

couldn't even write the word "egg." All that came out of my pencil was an Okay, Hank, I told myself. Don't panic. You'll just have to remember their order. You can do that. The bald man put his menu down and leaned forward. "Blueberry waffle, hot raspberry syrup, extra melted butter, and a turkey sausage." I could feel his words going in through my ears, but they raced around my brain like a pinball. I looked over at the guy with the ponytail, hoping that he was not hungry. But oh was he ever! He wanted lunch for breakfast. "I'll have your cheeseburger deluxe, extra pickles, Russian dressing on a toasted bun." Deluxe? I've never even heard that word before. And why would you want to see a Russian person dressing? The bald man flashed me a smile. "Look at you, smart kid," he said. "You didn't even have to write any of our order down."

连“鸡蛋”这个词都不会写。 铅笔里只写了一句“好吧，汉克，”我对自己说。 不要恐慌。你只需要记住他们的顺序。 你可以这么做。秃头男人放下菜单，身体前倾。 “蓝莓华夫饼，热覆盆子糖浆，多加融化黄油，还有火鸡香肠” 我能感觉到他的话穿过我的耳朵，但它们像弹球一样在我的脑海里旋转。 我看了看那个扎马尾的家伙，希望他不饿。 但他曾经是！他早餐想吃午饭。 “我要你的豪华芝士汉堡，多加泡菜，俄罗斯酱加烤面包。” 豪华吗?我从来没听过这个词。 你为什么想看一个俄罗斯人穿衣服？ 那个秃头男人对我微微一笑。 “看看你，聪明的孩子，”他说。 “你甚至都不用把我们点的东西写下来。”

"No, sir, it's all up here," I said, pointing to my head. I dashed over to Carlos to give him the order, trying to remember their words. "Hey, Little Man, I'm busy," he said. "I got eight omelets coming out for Table Eleven. Give your order to Vlady. He'll take care of you." Vlady is a big man with so much hair on his arms, his skin looks like he's wearing a sweater. I've known him since I was little. "Vlady," I said. "You have to listen to me fast before I forget everything." In a giant rush of words, the order came spilling out of my mouth.

“不，先生，都在上面。”我指着自己的头说。 我冲到卡洛斯跟前，向他下达命令，努力记住他们的话。 “嘿，小个子，我很忙，”他说。 “我给11号桌准备了8个煎蛋卷。 把你的命令交给夫人。他会照顾你的。” 弗莱蒂是个大块头，胳膊上有很多毛，他的皮肤看起来就像穿了件毛衣。 我从小就认识他了。 “夫人，”我说。“在我忘记一切之前，你得赶紧听我说。” 我滔滔不绝地说出了命令。

"Slow down, Small Fry," Vlady said. That might be insulting coming from anyone else, but next to him, everyone is a small fry. "I can't slow down," I told him, "or I'm going to forget the whole order." Vlady listened and jotted down some notes. "Strange order," he said. "But your mother says the customer is always right." He shrugged, then turned to the griddle and started to cook.

“慢点，小家伙，”弗莱蒂说。 这话从别人嘴里说出来可能是侮辱，但在他面前，每个人都是小人物。 “我不能慢下来，”我告诉他，“否则我会把整个订单都忘了。” 弗莱蒂听着，匆匆记了些笔记。 “奇怪的秩序，”他说。“但是你妈妈说顾客永远是对的。” 他耸了耸肩，然后转向煎锅开始烹饪。

"I've got a lot of orders coming in," he said. "You could really help me out by going back to the table and making sure their water glasses are full." I grabbed a pitcher of ice water. I had to use both hands because it was heavy. Holding it against my chest, I made my way over to Table Seven without spilling a drop. I was starting to get the hang of this waiter thing! I was also starting to have a frozen chest. "More water, anyone?" I asked the men. "Sure, that would be great," the man with the mustache answered, barely stopping the joke he was telling to the others.

“我接到了很多订单，”他说。 “你回到桌边，确保他们的水杯已经满了，真的可以帮我解决这个问题。” 我抓起一壶冰水。 我不得不用双手，因为它很重。 我把它顶在胸前，一滴也没洒，径直走向七号桌。 我开始掌握当服务员的窍门了！我的胸部也开始冻僵了。 “要不要再来点水？”我问他们。 “当然，那太好了，”留着小胡子的男人回答道，几乎没有停止他给其他人讲的笑话。

His glass was pretty high up, and I was pretty low down. I stood on my tiptoes and pulled the glass to the edge of the table so I could reach it better. I lifted the pitcher with both hands and started to pour. Unfortunately, there was no glass in the area I was pouring. Water spilled out onto the table and dripped off the edge and into the man's lap. He jumped up from his chair and screamed like he had seen a mouse. "I'm s-so s-sorry, s-sir," I stammered. "I guess being a waiter isn't as easy as it looks." "Don't worry about it, kid," the man with the mustache said, picking up his napkin and

他的眼镜很高，我的眼镜很低。 我踮起脚尖，把玻璃杯拉到桌子边上，这样我就能够得着它。 我双手举起水罐，开始倒水。 不幸的是，我倒的地方没有玻璃。 水溢出到桌子上，从桌子边缘滴到男人的腿上。 他从椅子上跳起来，尖叫起来，好像看见了一只老鼠。 “我——非常——抱歉，——先生。”我结结巴巴地说。 “我想当服务员并不像看上去那么容易。” “别担心，孩子，”留胡子的男人一边说，一边拿起餐巾