Alice on a Friday Night: A Novel of Addictions and Dreams by Dessi Nikko

Author:Dessi Nikko [Nikko, Dessi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Words on the Water
Published: 2024-01-14T00:00:00+00:00

“Nice, Alice! This job at the bar is a great opportunity for you to evolve as a writer.”

I’ve been penning down my life experience for many weeks now. Annie keeps coming up with new incentives to keep me writing and writing and writing. She really has a way of making everything seem truly inspiring.

“You wanna be a really good writer? Then move on from the stage of forever debating what kind of person you are. You need to pay more attention to how other people are, and interacting with the customers at The Mockingbird is just the thing you need.”

“You’re probably the only one who thinks that…”

Ever since I started working at the bar, my family has been broadcasting one and the same chant: “You’re wasting your potential in that place! Get a real job!” It has become a constant, everyday rant. Whenever I crash at Venus’s – which happens a lot these days – my parents still call to check up on me and reiterate the same all-familiar diatribe.

“A waitress! You idiot!” My dad, foaming at the mouth.

“Please, Alice!” My mom, damp at the eyes. “By all means, you must give up this job! You always come home so late at night, it’s not right, you’re not getting enough sleep! We’ll help you out until you finish university.”

“University! What university? She’s an idiot! She doesn’t go to university anymore!”

Most of my friends also disapprove of my decision to work as a waitress. I don’t care; we’ve become strangers anyway. Disconnected. They seem to have found their way, consistently devoted to whatever real jobs they discovered. No one knows about Venus or Annie. And all I know is that I need more time. I need to experience more worlds before I reconsider my friendships.

“You’re not a flower that would thrive in an office environment, Alice,” Annie’s pep talk is still on. “Do you have fun while working at the bar? Then you’re not wasting any potential.”

“Oh Annie, you always make it sound like life itself is a waitress who’ll bring me whatever I want!”

“Life’s buffet-style, baby, you don’t need a waitress. Just serve yourself whatever you want!”

She’s a weird combination of a mischievous cheerleader and a stern career counselor.

“You’re wasting your potential in that place!” my family keeps chanting, but my heart says Annie is right. Every occupation, regardless of its “intellectual” level, brings you some new knowledge. I don’t want to be stuck in the routine washing machine of an office job. I don’t want detergent all over my dreams. I must try out as many different jobs as possible in this life.

My lifeguard training taught me that I need to secure my own safety first, and only then go on to save people’s lives. A valuable lesson. And another one that I learned during the short period when I worked as a teacher: clumsily-made Christmas cards with the word “thank you” misspelled can make you feel like someone capable of changing the world.

What can I learn from a

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