But each time Brenda would calculate our pay, she would still take out twenty percent to pay taxes. We were supposed to be paid under the table, because we were only fourteen years old at the time. For example, a few weeks before, he had informed me that Brenda and Ken were cheating us on our pay. He was a lot more knowledgeable when it came to worldly affairs, because he had two older brothers that taught him everything. Being a game addict, I would forget about eating dinner, and wait until the last moment before I rode my bike home to get in the shower, and then get back to work before four.Īnthony was my best friend at the time. The Chinese and Vietnamese wedding dinners usually lasted until well after midnight. We were officially on break until four pm it was during this time that Anthony and I would ride our bikes down to the arcade and play for hours on our favorite games at the time: Gauntlet, Tetris, and Punch Out! It was also during this time that we were supposed to eat and shower before we showed back up to work for the wedding dinners. I always ate the ha kow, and Anthony loved to suck on the chicken feet. After that, we as busboys could eat whatever was leftover. China Pearl Restaurant would open on Saturday mornings for the Dim Sum buffet around nine am, and would stay quite busy until noon. The owners, Brenda and Ken, also had a buffet set up with fried rice, orange chicken, chow mein noodles, beef broccoli, and sweet pastry desserts made from mung beans. The Dim Sum menu would have steamed stainless steel trays of chicken feet, shrimp dumplings, meatballs marinated in garlic and onions, and fresh cabbage cole. Our days began at about seven am, where we would come in to set up for the Chinese version of brunch, called Dim Sum. Saturdays were the busiest days for us, and this one would be no different. It was a little after noon Anthony and I were on our break as busboys at The China Pearl Restaurant. “Umm hmm.” I continued to dip my ha kow, also known as steamed shrimp dumplings, in the soy sauce and eat them with my plate of fried rice. “Cool! So that’s good for a couple hours at the arcade, huh?” “She gave me about four bucks too, but that one white family that just left had almost eight dollars in tips. “I think I got about twelve dollars,” I replied. “Brenda gave me four bucks, and I got about another six.”
He continued to gnaw on his heaping plate of steamed chicken feet from the Dim Sum menu. “How much did you get in tips today?” asked Anthony.
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