I Know What You Need

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
A quick warning, there are curse words that are un-beeped in today's episode of the show. If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org.

**Ira Glass** (0:11)
When she was in her late 20s, Devon was in grad school in Memphis, and scraping by like you do in grad school. When a car broke down, she didn't have the money to fix it for months. She worked as a waitress, which she really liked. She was one of those waitresses who could remember everybody's order without writing it down. She was quick on her feet, buzzing around, sizing up the customers. What do you need? What do you need?
And the restaurant?

**Devon Taylor** (0:34)
So the restaurant is kind of a famous tourist trap on Beale Street called Silky O'Sullivans. If you've ever been to Beale Street, you know this restaurant. They have goats, they have dueling pianos, they also have these giant bucket drinks called divers, and they put like 20 straws in these things and people get absolutely wasted. I used to call them, this was the era when that show The Walking Dead was really popular, and people were like walkers because they were so drunk, they would just be kind of staggering around on the patio and you'd sort of like kick them out of your way. You're like, come move along walkers.
And people go, like it's a place people go for like a bachelorette party or what have you.

**Ira Glass** (1:19)
Devon doesn't remember many of the customers from back then. Going back, it's a blur of people and drink orders.
Except for the people who came in one day during a lunch shift. This is in the middle of summer, a weekday she thinks.

**Devon Taylor** (1:31)
Lunch shifts were always like a little bit slow. There was a guy who used to play acoustic guitar out on the patio. And it was just kind of a lazy thing. People would come and hang out for hours. And you just, you know, kind of limp through your shift. And I had these two women who came in with presumably their daughters. There was just two women, two young girls. They were watching the music and they were drinking frozen drinks. And they were there for hours.
And I would go out, you know, every whatever, however many minutes to check on them and they were always just fine. And at one point I went out and they weren't there.
I was like, that's weird. And I start looking around and I'm becoming increasingly panicked because this is a restaurant where, at least at the time, if somebody walked out on your check, you had to pay for that check.

**Ira Glass** (2:26)
You as the server were responsible for the check.

**Devon Taylor** (2:30)
That was the policy at the time, at least as I understood it.

**Ira Glass** (2:33)
It is not the policy, by the way, of the current owners of Silky O'Sullivans, who took over a few years ago. I checked.
But back then, Devon says she's on the hook for this check.

**Devon Taylor** (2:43)
Their check was a little over $100.

**Ira Glass** (2:47)
And $100, like what was your take home on a normal day?

**Devon Taylor** (2:51)
For, especially for a lunch shift, I was lucky if I got $100. Right.

**Ira Glass** (2:55)
And so basically, like this would basically mean you were working for free that day and might even lose a little money.

**Devon Taylor** (3:01)
Yes.

**Ira Glass** (3:02)
But Devon has no time to dwell on this at that moment. Cause another table has been seated in her section and she has to go attend to them.

**Devon Taylor** (3:09)
And so I walk over to this table and they can see that I'm looking around in a little panicked. And one of the men at the table says, are you looking for that table? And they point to where the women had been sitting. I said, yes. And he says, yeah, something weird happened where they sent the two kids out to the street and then they each went one by one and followed them. And I think they walked out on the check. So what'd you do?
Well, it's the middle of my shift. There's not much I can do. And so I, you know, I'm talking to this table and I kind of like try to, you know, I'm starting to get upset and my eyes are filling with tears and I like button up a little bit and say, oh, okay, well, can I get your drink order? And I'm like fighting back tears. And it's this table of, you know, like five or six adults and they're like, sure, we'll have a nice tea, whatever they begin to order. And the, who I believe is kind of the father of the group, it's like a mother and father, and I think they're adult children is what I sort of put together as the makeup of this table. He reaches in his pocket and he just hands me a credit card. And I'm a little bit confused for a moment. He said, just pay their check.