Ella Milo



Ella Milo is 51;
  After her husband died of pneumonia two years ago she decided that rather than mope around
in a strangely quiet apartment sheíd go back to work. She'd been a waitress most of her working life and is
now a waitress at a pancake restaurant that caters primarily to elderly people who donít care what they eat
since they canít taste anything anyway, as well as to young couples with children who know the place will
accommodate noisy babies and their harried parents. The old folks don't tip very well and the young couples
sometimes forget to tip at all, though rarely. Ella doesn'tmind children, she likes babies, had three of her
own who've given her eight lovely grandchildren. What she does very much mind, however, is the attitude
of some of the younger waitresses who sign on for evening shifts and who have a tendency to call in sick
at the last minute so they can go out for a night on the town with their boyfriends, or, if they do bother showing
up for work, smoke and gab outside in the alley back of the breezeway instead of waiting on customers or
sorting silverware or seeing to the condiment station. It's all left to Ella, who has varicose veins and whose
glasses always fog up from the heat of the kitchen and whose left arm is none too strong since she broke her
wrist last winter when she slipped on ice in the parking lot at the place where she used to work. She got
workmanís comp for that, but had to find another job, her current one, which she has to take two buses to
get to. Some nights when she gets off from her shift she's so tired, or the weather is so bad, that she takes
a cab to the subway station and rides the train home, but only on nights when she's managed to accumulate
enough tips to afford the cab fare. She wouldnít dream of moving out her apartment to somewhere closer
by, she'd lived there most of her married life. The landlord is very nice but he keeps mentioning how much
heíd like to be able to renovate the place and convert it to condos. She knows very well it won't be long
before he makes good on that urge but she doesnít know how she could ever move out of the apartment
whereshe has so many memories. It would just about break her heart yet again.              Francis Dimenno


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