The usually immaculate, sleek and stainless kitchen of Lever's Diner was enveloped in complete mayhem. There was a constant flurry of workers fluttering in and out while hefty pots were deftly sloshed around, emitting sparks of sizzling oil. Ava stood at the doorway of the kitchen, stupefied. It was only her second day of work since she had joined Lever's Diner for a part-time job for summer and no one had told her just how much work waitering could entail. And to think she had willingly condemned herself to this work for the entirety of summer.Good lord.
"AVA! Go get the butter from the freezer!", the chef hollered. Apparently, waitering also included being an errand girl for the kitchen staff- another thing the head had conveniently not included in the job description. Ava strode towards the walk-in- freezer. This freezer, in particular, was something of a pride to the staff of Lever's Diner- it was massive, with wide walls stacked with rows of frozen food and plus, it was designed in the 50's when walk-in-freezers were a rare luxury. It's only fault however was that the freezer's bulky door was habitually known to malfunction. The workers were explicitly told over and over to hit the red toggle before going inside the freezer as it would indicate someone is inside. Ava, in her haste, bypassed the toggle on her way into the freezer but left the door open. When Amy, the waitress, passed by the open door, she clucked her tongue in disapproval and proceeded to slam her hips against it, hammering it shut, deaf to Ava's cries.
Ava dropped the butter and bolted to the door, pounding her fists desperately against it. Her ragged breath rose out in jagged swirls of mists and already a steady quiver had begun from her knees and it travelled upwards like the slow unwinding of a clockwork toy. The chattering had spread to her teeth now and it felt as though the cold's moist, clammy fingers had penetrated to every inch of her flesh until the chill was a living, tangible being in the hollow space of her bone.'why had no one come yet ?', Ava wondered, when with mounting dread she realized today was the day the entire staff was allowed an early leave.
That was when the panic set in for real.
The colossal room suddenly was so small, it stifled her. She gasped for air but the oxygen seemed to escape her. Was she going to be stuck here for the entire day?Was this how she was going to spend her final moments? Tears swelled in her eyes at the thought of dying in such a frightfully lonesome way.
No.
She was not going to die and most certainly not because of a stupid, careless mistake on her part.She would not spend the rest of her afterlife, hiding her head in shame because of that damned toggle. Ava mustered the last remnants of her energy and cut the thick plastic sheet hanging in front of the freezer with the kitchen knife to wrap around her flimsy waitress outfit like a gigantic plastic cocoon. She scanned the rest of the room and zeroed in on a bucket. She huddled next to it and hug it upside down on her head
The rest, she reasoned, was all up to God.
No one knew where the new girl had gone but Amy thought the teenager had bailed so when she came to the Diner five hours later to search for her keys she had dropped- she could never have fathomed the reality. Ava was mummified n a grey plastic sheet, blue fingers clutching it, with a bucket on her head.
Amy screamed.
As Ava was carried out of the freezer, her eyes flickered open drowsily to fasten on a sign over the kitchen.It read:
'Be alert, be aware, stay alive.'
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