Chop Chop…

After my sixteenth birthday I told my mom that I felt ready to go back to work. I needed money to buy supplies that I wanted for my culinary studies and for some other stuff that I would not confess too.

My mom said that she would make some personal inquiries with her hotel connections. And she had a lot of connections in Las Vegas, especially with the major hotels on the strip.

My mom told me that the Sahara Hotel was looking for busboys and kitchen help. She took me to the hotel and introduced me to the hospitality manager. I explained to the hospitality manager that I was studying culinary arts at the local vocational high school, and he was receptive to learning about my studies.

The hospitality manager looked at my mom after our conversation and with the wink of her eye the interview was completed.

The hotel hired me to be a busboy in the main dining room and in the main dinner theater. While I was not cooking, I would start to get some exposure to a major hotel kitchen and what the big hotel food service operations looked like and how it functioned.

I was happy about this opportunity.

My instructors at the culinary school were also happy for me and told me that I would do a good job.

I then learned that several of my fellow culinary classmates also got jobs at other hotels as well.

Now, to work at a major hotel in Las Vegas, I had to join a union and fill out lots of paperwork. This was a job all by itself.

When I started my job at the Sahara Hotel during my first day of training, I learned that many celebrities would pass through the kitchen to avoid the regular folks in the casino and lobby.

One night I bumped into Don Rickles while he was passing through the kitchen side hall. He must have been having a bad day because he wasn’t that friendly to me. I thought to myself that maybe next time he would be nicer.

After work one night I came home to find that the side of our trailer had been chopped up with what looked like an axe or hatchet. And the sliding glass door glass had also been smashed. There was glass everywhere on the front porch and inside the foyer.

Seeing this scared me. I wondered if whoever did this was still inside waiting to attack whoever came inside.

I knew that my mom was not home because she told me earlier that she was going out after work and I had the car.

After seeing this damage, I ran over to the two brothers’ trailer in a panic and woke them up. Their mom calmed me down and said, “Let’s go see what you are talking about.”

We then walked cautiously back to the trailer to see what I was trying to explain to her.

As we approached the side of the trailer with all the damage I said to her, “Who would do this?”

I think she was shocked to see the damage.

She responded, “We are going to call the police. Don’t go inside.”

We walked back to her trailer and she called the police.

When the police arrived, we met them at the trailer. I remember that two police cars came. Once the police officers got out of their cars they began to look around outside with their flashlights. One officer came up to me and asked if I had gone inside.

I quickly said, “No way.”

He replied, “I will go inside and check to see if anyone is in there.”

The policeman was very cautious when he went inside only using his flashlight to navigate the interior rooms.

I did not know where my mom was or when she would be home. And I was still scared.

The policeman who checked out the inside of the trailer came back out and said everything inside looked to be undisturbed. He said, “It looks like whoever did this did not go inside.”

He then asked me to walk with him back inside the trailer to verify what he had observed. As we walked from room to room, I think I became very chatty with him. He was ok with that. He could see that I was very anxious.

He walked with me into every room so I could see if there was anything that I noticed to be out of place.

When we went back outside. The other office had continued looking around and found a hatchet in the vacant lot across from our trailer. They said they were going to take it to check it out.

While all of this was going on, the two brothers were intently watching from their trailer.

Since my mom wasn’t home the two brothers’ mom said that I could stay at their trailer until my mom came home.

My mom came home a couple hours later to find the damage that was done. And her boyfriend was with her.

My mom was upset and confronted her boyfriend like she knew who did this. And he agreed. Somehow, he knew his wife had chopped up our trailer.

My mom called the police, and they came back out to talk with her and her boyfriend. And I was also included in this conversation since I had found the damage and had spoken with the police before she came home.

There was a lot said in this conversation that I probably should not have heard but I did.

After the conversation with my mom and her boyfriend, the police left. My mom’s boyfriend said he was going home to have a talk with his wife.

At this point of the night all I could think about was just how crazy this whole situation is. And what the hell has my mom gotten herself into. First a bar room fight with her boyfriend’s wife, and now an attack on our trailer by his wife.

I also thought that this might have been worse if my mom had been home alone. Or if I had been home alone. Would I have been the one chopped up? Or would it have been her?

This life of ours is getting way out of hand.

What next…

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