Truly Like Lightning by David Duchovny

Author:David Duchovny
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

20.

DEUCE CONSIDERED SCHOOL and BurgerTown equally as loci of learning, but at work, he really came into his own. The industrialized, inhuman speed coupled with the very human give-and-take of fast-food service was for him an education in the modern world and its ideal of efficiency, ease, and faux friendliness. But there was nothing “faux” about Deuce. He was sincere and well intentioned, whether playing goalkeeper with the Mexicans out back, constructing perfect burgers to company specifications like a flesh machine in his silly hat, or making Spanglish small talk with customers.

BurgerTown was fast food but with a homier, more personal vibe than McDonald’s or In-N-Out, and on a much smaller scale. There were fifty BurgerTown franchises in California and the Pacific Northwest. After being trained and programmed to avoid them like a killing virus his entire short life, Deuce found that he actually liked people and liked to be helpful. He liked serving people, being of service. He didn’t even mind the lame, mustard-yellow-and-baby-shit-brown uniform. He made the California state minimum wage of $11 an hour, but he didn’t do it for the spending money. He gave his paycheck to Mary anyway, to put into a college fund for himself and for his siblings.

He was set on going to college now. His teachers were already pushing him Ivy way as their very own “success story,” but those were long shots. Even though his daddy was worth easily a couple hundred million in real estate, the family had zero liquid money. Bronson Powers didn’t have a bank account or a credit card. He hadn’t paid taxes in twenty years. He had a big stash of cash hidden somewhere in the house he’d pull out like a magician to pay for seeds, gas, and parts, but that was all. Deuce figured he’d get better financial aid if he stayed in state—so he was looking at UC Berkeley, UCLA, maybe Stanford.

Of the twenty-five BurgerTown employees, only a handful were students, though fast food was the quintessential American student temp job. But in the twenty-first-century economy, in Rancho Cucamonga in the county of San Bernardino, California, the United States, fast-food work had become predominantly a full-time job for an adult citizen. Deuce was one of the few white student employees. He took two eight-hour shifts on the weekends and two four-hour shifts after school, on Wednesdays and Fridays. The manager, Frank, put Deuce out front at the main register. He said, “People like seeing a white face when they open their wallets.” Deuce was self-conscious out front with his skin, but he did as he was told. Raised by a strict father, he had a natural respect for the chain of command.

Deuce’s favorite at work was an old Mexican man named Jaime. Old man: he was about fifty and working full-time at BurgerTown, pulling double shifts whenever he could, bringing cold burgers and fries home at the end of the night to freeze for his kids and grandkids; he must’ve worked sixty hours a week, usually showed up an hour early to do what needed to be done, always a smile on his face.

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