Happy Birthday to me! Early in our relationship, Akilah took me to Chevy’s on my birthday and totally outed me to the waitress. I still have the sombrero on the wall by the kitchen. At this Chevy’s no one’s safe…
“So… yeah, that’s about it. Do you have any questions before I have you shadow Jessica on the floor?” Amy asked Lauren, the new waitress.
“I do have a question, but… it’s kind of weird,” her cheeks colored.
“Please, feel free to ask! The more you know…” Amy said cheerfully.
“Well,” Lauren started, “Is it true what they say about this place?”
“About Chevy’s?”
“No, about this Chevy’s,” she said conspiratorially.
“Oh!” Amy said with understanding. “Yeah, unfortunately, it’s true. Greg the dishwasher will totally try to hit on you,” she said quietly. “But he’s a decent guy – just tell him you like girls or you’re not interested and he’ll legit back off and not bother you again.”
“No, not that…” She looked around and asked with a voice barely above a whisper, “Is this place really… haunted?”
“Oh, that,” Amy said and took a deep breath. “So… yes. It is haunted.”
“Have you seen the ghost?”
“I don’t think anyone here has actually seen the ghost, but I think all of us are familiar with him.”
“Him?”
“You know,” Amy had an idea, “I think I’ll let you find out on the floor with Jessica.”
They met Jessica in the kitchen as she was grabbing plates for a customer. “Jessica, this is Lauren. She’s going to shadow you, okay?”
“Hi,” Jessica flashed Lauren a smile. “Sounds good. You’ve had waitressing experience?”
“Yeah,” Lauren said, “a couple years.”
“Great. Here,” she handed Lauren four plates. “You can help me drop for this 8-top. Best way to learn is by jumping right in.”
They set the plates down at the table, Jessica asked if they needed anything else and both women started back towards the kitchen.
Without warning, an icy shiver ran up Lauren’s back. The shock of the sensation momentarily took her breath away and she was grateful they’d set the plates down because she wasn’t sure she wouldn’t have dropped them.
A voice so near her ear she could feel the wind from the speaker said, “Ray, third on the right, table 19”.
She instinctively looked towards where the voice came from but there was no one there. She shivered and composed herself and kept walking. Only then did she notice Jessica looking at her.
“Did you feel it?”
Lauren’s eyes widened. “Yeah, what was that?”
“And you heard him, right? Ray, third on the right? Table 19?”
“What…I don’t understand. Who was that? Who’s Ray?”
“We just dropped table 19,” Jessica explained. “Looks like Ray is the one in the baseball hat, red shirt,” she turned and pointed discreetly.”
“Okay, but… what was that voice? That chill?”
“That’s… the birthday ghost.”
“The what?”
“The birthday ghost. Everyone has theories on who he is, how he died, whatever. But the thing is he seems to scope out all the parties and then tells the server if someone has a birthday at their table.”
“That’s crazy!”
“I know.” Then Jessica added excitedly, “I’ve got a friend who’s psychic. She came in one night and said she made contact with the ghost. She said he told her he was with his family, and it was his little brother’s birthday, and he swore everyone to secrecy – no one could tell the waitress it was his birthday because he was terrified of getting the sombrero and the staff singing happy birthday to him. The brother was going to tell the waitress – as brothers will do, of course – but apparently had a freak aneurysm in the bathroom. Died like instantly.”
“Oh my god! When was this?” Lauren asked.
“No idea. My friend couldn’t get a date, and no one here knows anything about a kid dying in the bathroom. But my friend said the ghost haunts this place for the sole purpose of finding out whose birthday it is and letting us know.”
“That sounds like a terrible afterlife!” Lauren shook her head.
“Yeah, kind of does,” Jessica agreed. “But, I don’t know, at least the ghost has all you can eat chips and salsa!” she smiled. “Let’s get a sombrero for Ray at table 19.”
