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32
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Ed walked down the sidewalk on the street, which led to McGinty's. He looked down at his watch and saw that it was 11am.
I'd better hurry up if I don't want to be late! He thought and quickened his pace.
Shortly, he arrived in front of the diner with tons of time to spare. He approached the building, opened the door, and entered.
He walked up to the front desk, cleared his throat and adjusted his tie. "Hello. I um... I'm Ed Wood. I'm here to work as a dishwasher."
The girl at the desk looked slightly familiar to Ed. The way she looked... the way she stared at him with that sort of lazy and lifeless look… the way she-- The way she chewed gum at him very rudely because she was the waitress he had unfortunately been blessed with on his lunch with Howard Brinkley.
"Yeah. Come behind here. I'll show you to the… thing in the... place," She replied lazily, chewing her gum.
Ed pushed the wooden barrier that blocked the behind-desk area from the restaurant area out of his way and followed the waitress to where she was leading him.
They stopped in a room filled with a bunch of heavy-duty double sinks with carts of dirty dishes here and there.
"Carlina!" The waitress yelled. Ed covered his ears and winced.
A minute later, a woman about Ed's age appeared at the doorway and walked up to them. The waitress disappeared and then it was just Ed and the new woman.
The woman put her hand out. "I'm Carlina Epstein. I'm the one in charge of things around here. I'm going to teach you all the stuff you need to know to wash dishes here at McGinty's."
Ed shook her hand. "Pleasure to meet you, Carlina. Teach away."
Carlina smiled and walked past Ed and to one of the double sinks. She pulled a nearby cart next to her and looked at Ed. Ed walked over to her and stood beside.
Carlina pointed at the cart of dirty dishes. "Now, Ed. The busboys here are trained to load the dish-carts a very specific way to make it easier for the dishwashers." She pointed at a stack of dirty dishes and picked it up. "All dishes are stacked in columns of ten, like this."
Ed nodded. "I see."
"So first of all, you only do a stack at a time. Less broken plates, less broken backs. You take a stack and place it in your left sink like so." Carlina placed the stack she was holding in the left side of the double sink. "Then you see this little shelf above your sink?" She pointed at a shelf above the sink that held various bottles of cleansers and rags and other cleaning supplies.
Ed nodded. "Yes. I see it."
Carlina grabbed a bottle of blue liquid, a bottle of green liquid and two rags from the shelf, then placed them on the little side block that was on the sink. "You always must use a bottle of Cleanse-O, a bottle of Shine-O-Matic and two rags for your dishes. And you place them on this little corner on the right."
Ed nodded.
Carlina picked up the bottle of blue liquid that was Cleanse-O and a rag. She held them up to Ed so he could see. "You start with your Cleanse-O and a rag. Now don't worry, because you'll be wearing gloves while doing this... you apply Cleanse-O in your left sink where the dishes are and scrub the face sides and backsides with your rag. After that you move them all to the right side of your sink and let your left side drain." She moved the dishes into the right side of the sink and put her bottle of Cleanse-O and used rag on the block to the right.
She picked up the bottle of green liquid that was Clean-O-Matic and the remaining rag and held them up to Ed. "Then you take Clean-O-Matic and your other rag and you do the process again." She demonstrated how to wash the dishes again. "After, you take your water hose..." She picked up a hand-held hose-like apparatus from a clamp on the side of the sink and held it up to him. "And you clean off your left side of the sink with it. When that's all done, you move your dishes back to the left side, drain the right, hose down the dishes in the left side of the sink, then hose the right. Then you put the hose away." She put her hose away and pulled a large towel off of a nearby rack. "Finally you dry off your dishes one by one and..." She pulled an empty cart out from under the double sink and positioned it next to the dirty dish cart. "You replace them all in columns of ten on your cart."
Ed nodded.
"A cart can hold one hundred dishes. And when you've filled a cart, you push it over to the clean dish area." She pointed off to the side where there hung a sign on the wall that read 'Clean Dish Area'.
"So you've got it all down?"
"I've got it all down."
"Okay. Well, follow me. I'll get you your uniform."
Ed smiled. "Okay."
And they both left the dishwashing room.