Life Of Karma Short Stories
Daylight Robbery
The Market Hotel in Reigate, London 2002 was an unusual place to work as a Head Chef — only serving food for lunch and not on Sundays.
The manager was a paranoid, egomaniacal type who didn’t care about the staff. It was whispered that he had been robbed before, and now carried an alert button around his neck to call the police whenever pressed.
At night, the hotel was like a fortress; no one could leave or enter without setting off the alarm. Since I didn’t have access to the alarm codes, this meant I had to stay put in my room, kitchen and toilet facilities, so it felt like a prison.
One night I had my girlfriend over; when she left to go to work, the alarms went off, prompting the manager to come running — he yelled at us for leaving the door unlocked, so I could get back in.
He didn’t care much for me; it infuriated him when I won the competition hosted by the company that owned thirteen pubs in London.
At Christmas time, the chefs would compete to see who could make the highest profits compared to last year’s figures for each location. When I came out on top, I received loads of recognition from the owners, and a bunch of red and white wine was presented at one of the pubs. I gave those bottles away to all the staff.
He eventually got me fired when he learned that my girlfriend was expecting and we were planning to move to Australia in three months’ time. He used this as an excuse for dismissal, even though I had informed our superiors about what was going on.
On my final day of work, due to the terms of my contract they had to pay out a lump sum of 1200 pounds including wages and holiday pay. He pretended not to realize it was that day and said he didn’t have any money available.
I demanded my owed money from the manager, and with some subtle hints of how the money could be extracted, he knew I wouldn’t be leaving without it. He proceeded to frantically open cash registers and empty pokie machines of coins and I even made him empty his own wallet until he was still 60 pounds short.
I snatched up the collection of notes and coins without protest and headed for the bank next door.
The woman behind the counter raised an eyebrow at my bulging bag of money, then asked in disbelief if I had just robbed the pub next door? I told her ‘kinda’, then explained the whole situation.
She keenly assessed me before informing me that there was a 25 pound fee for converting currency at the bank but she had known the pub manager and her own words, he was an asshole and decided to waive it wishing luck to me and my new family on the way.
The same day I secured a chef job 30 minutes away, I started work in an opulent restaurant.
It looked like a lot of money had been spent on renovations, but the staff quarters was abominable. The walls were so damaged that you could have punched a hole through them, and mice ran around unchecked even in our mattresses at night.
Knowing I’d only be there for a few months, I got to work to save up for my trip to Australia. One unexpected benefit was that some of the staff worked cleaning at a local jail and would receive confiscated weed from prison officers, which they’d allegedly secured by flirting with them.
Despite feeling guilty about the inmates getting taken advantage of like this, it certainly livened up our nights! I ended up bumping into one of these co-workers five years later in Australia — we exchanged amazed greetings and shared stories before going our separate ways.
