"Hey Janae, how are you doing today?" She asks pouring a spoon full of food onto the tray she was holding.
"Not too bad today Stacie. I got a warm place to sleep tonight first day this week I got one." She says standing with a smile on her face proud she had managed to grab a bed.
"That's awesome you got a bed for the night." She says moving down the conveyer to give her more food filling up her tray. As they move down Janae looks through to the back where more staff are working.
"Hey you got a new girl here." She says eyeing up the blonde standing at the back in the kitchen that she didn't recognise.
"Huh" she turns round looking in the back to see, "oh yeah that's Aubrey she started today" Stacie says not really paying any attention to her.
"She's pretty don't you think?" She says trying to push the subject to Stacie.
"Yeah I guess so. You go sit down and eat now." She says rolling her eyes not wanting to keep talking about the subject and having to go back to the front of the line again to serve others.
After a few minutes it starts to get packed with all the usual's plus some new people which Stacie loved and hated seeing both at the same time. She noticed she couldn't run the front of it on her own now seeing how many people were queuing up for food.
"New girl" she says trying to get Aubrey's attention but being ignored as she was too focused on her task. "Hey Aubrey can you come up front and help me, you can do that later." Aubrey turns round startled at being called upon but walks slowly to the front.
"You know what you're doing here?" Stacie asks while pointing to the conveyer, not really wanting to waste time teaching her.
"Yeah I think so, you start at this side of the line and move down the line with the person you are serving; give them a spoon full of each bit of food and then when they get to the end with everything on the tray you go back to the beginning and start all over again with someone else." Aubrey says going off her memory from what she had been told earlier that day.
"Right and don't forget to smile, make light conversation with them and be kind to each one of them. They come here because it's a safe place for them." Stacie says noticing she forget to mention the things she classes as the most important part of her job.
"Got it" she says starting to get to work serving the homeless for her first ever time.
The two of them end up working at almost the same speed crashing into each other as they go down the line. At first Stacie was annoyed that Aubrey was doing that until she realised that they were getting the job done really quickly and that all the tables were filling up. The line eventually becomes empty with only one person left to be served; a young girl just stands there really frail and weak being too nervous to ask for anything, looking like she didn't want to be there.
"Hey there, come down with me and I will get you some food." Aubrey says standing with this girl trying to make her feel welcome.
"Here hold this tray and we will walk down together." They walk down and Aubrey starts placing food onto the girl's tray just like she had done with each of the other people before her. She talks to her wanting to try and calm her nerves down a bit.
Stacie walks up to the outside door looking out checking if anyone else was still to come in or not; she had gotten used to seeing that sometimes they just stand outside not daring to come in. Today was different though it seemed that nobody was outside. She placed a sign on the door which says that the kitchen was closed now. She stands there and looks round seeing that each table was full it amazed her to see so many people show up when it wasn't a holiday.
She walks up to the back and sees Aubrey serving the girl she stops in her tracks observing how she was treating her, she hadn't ever seen a new member of the team treat them like this without being trained that way. A massive smile grew on her face seeing it; she was amazed and thrilled to see that Aubrey already fitted in there.
She continued on the way she was going and checks the store room to ensure that they had enough food for the next few days. She walks back out and walks over to Aubrey and stands behind her. "When you've done you can choose to stay here and eat or you can leave and eat elsewhere your choice." She says knowing most of her staff won't eat with the homeless people and tend to leave after serving time is over.
"Oh I'll stay then. Thanks" she says shocked she had been invited to stay.
Stacie grabs a tray and serves herself food going down the conveyer quickly so she can sit down and eat. She goes over to the table Janae was on sitting on, her usual person of choice to sit with.
"So new girls pretty good huh?" Janae says after watching Aubrey work the whole time she'd been there.
"Yeah she's not bad." She says seeing how well Aubrey had worked with her.
"She's really pretty too" Janae says trying again to talk relationships with Stacie.
"Yeah she is, very pretty." Stacie says turning round looking to Aubrey watching her still talking to the young girl that came in.
Aubrey walks down with the girl and brings her to the table that Janae and Stacie were sitting at.
"I'll come and join you in a minute." Aubrey says as soon as the girl had sat down she rushes over to get herself a tray of food so she can join them.
The girl sits there her hands on her lap her eyes staring down at the food but not daring to touch it. Stacie looks over to her and notices she wasn't eating and still looked afraid to be there.
"Please make sure you eat sweetie. I know it's scary coming into a place like this for your first time but you have come to the most welcoming one. We are pretty much a family in here." Stacie says moving a bit closer to her trying to console her so she felt better. The girl moves one of her hands picks up her fork and starts to eat but only taking very tiny bites, shaking the whole time she does it.
"Do you have a bed for the night girl?" Janae asks observing how she was worried for this girl's safety. Janae had been on the streets long enough to know that the younger you are the harder it is to live out there.
The girl shakes her head not wanting to talk to them still being too afraid. Aubrey finally arrives back at the table taking a seat next to Janae and facing the girl.
"My you can't be more than 15." Janae says still worrying for her sake
"It's really late now too all the hostel's would be filled up. I could call round but I bet there aren't any bed's open." Stacie gets up from her seat and starts ringing up some of the various hostel's that she is in contact with. To her surprise there was a space available in one of them but it was further out than most.
"Okay I have a space for you; I can drive you down there if you wait until we have finished here." Stacie says as she approaches the table again.
"No, I…I don't want to go to any more hostel's. I'd rather sleep on the streets." She says speaking to Stacie for the first time.
"Are you sure about that Lissa?" Aubrey asks not wanting her to go out to the streets
"Uhu" she nods her head as she says it looking back down to her tray of food after not wanting to talk about it anymore.
"Stacie, can I talk to you for a minute alone?" Aubrey says getting up out the seat she was in.
"Sure we can go into my office I need to lock up out back anyway." She says walking away into the back seeing her staff at the back cleaning all the trays that had been brought in from everyone else that had come and gone after eating.
"What's up?" she says curious as to what Aubrey wanted to talk about.
"Is it possible I can take her to my place? I have a spare room I don't use. She's not going to be good out on the streets by herself and honestly I feel sick to my stomach if I let her go." Aubrey rants on her worry being heard in her tone of voice.
"We are not supposed to, however I actually agree with you that she shouldn't be out there alone; so yeah you can take her to yours if she is willing to go, but don't say I gave you permission for this. It isn't our job to take in the homeless that's what the shelters and hostels are there for." Aubrey gives Stacie a hug taking her by surprise not being prepared that she was going to be hugged by her but enjoying the hug at the same time.
"Thank you" Aubrey says running off back outside to the seats to share the news and ask Lissa if she wanted to go with her.
Stacie finishes off in the back room and walks back outside she sees that she only has Lissa and Janae left with their trays before she can lock up the front door; she checks the kitchen to ensure it was tidy enough to leave it.
"Thanks Dean, Shirley you can go home now. I'll do the rest in the morning. " She says putting her hands on their backs thanking them for their work that day. They both nod and head to get their belongings leaving the tasks they were doing.
"We're going now Stacie as long as you don't need me for anything else?" Aubrey says walking to the back to get her things.
"Yeah you go will I see you tomorrow?" She asks wanting to know if Aubrey was on the rota for working.
"Yeah same shift as today. See you tomorrow. Oh and thanks for today I had a great first day working here" Aubrey says before walking back out Lissa with her; Janae following the two out going to the shelter she had managed to get into for the night.
Stacie does one last walk around checking that everything was as it should be before she locks up. She walks over to the table she was on before grabbing the trays that were left on the table. As she picks up the one left where Aubrey sat she saw a small note left on it.
Today was great, maybe I can take you out for a real meal one day soon. – Aubrey