28 / 194
22
but she served us first. She’d never gotten the order wrong
before. She knew virtually to the second who had arrived
first, who had sat where. The opposite happened too. We’d
be calling, over here, Miss Basia, or Basieńka, we were here
before them. She’d give us a distracted glance and serve the
guys who’d come after us. Or she’d bring the main course
to a table where they hadn’t had their soup yet, while there
were other men waiting for their main course at a table that
was even closer to her.
It’s possible to fall in love at first sight, but to that extent? It
was enough to see what happened when he showed up in
the cafeteria. If she was carrying bowls or plates to some
table, the tray would shake in her hands, the plates would
clink, then when she served them it was like she wanted to
chuck them all down at once. And right away she’d run to
the hatch for his soup. He’d still be eating the soup and
already she’d be bringing him his main course. While us,
when we finished our soup we always had to wait for the
main course till she was done serving everyone their soup.
Sometimes we’d even tap our forks against our bowls
because we’d been waiting too long for the main course.
Him, he never had to wait.
You should have seen her when he didn’t show up at the
usual time. You’d have thought it wasn’t her that was
serving the meals, her hands were doing the job all alone.
As for her, she didn’t even see what her hands were
carrying. She was just one big tormented waiting mass.