Chasing Shadows Read Online Free

simmering in a pot. “I’d like to tell you that deep down inside Lisa is really a warm and loving person. I can’t, though, because I dislike lying.”
    At that very moment Lisa came breezing through the doorway. I felt my face grow warm and red, as though I’d been the one saying those things about her.
    â€œLisa,” Ben said with a smirk and a little bow. “To what do we owe the pleasure of your charming presence? And how may I be of service to you?”
    â€œYou can stop the nonsense,” she suggested. She turned to look at me, and past me, to the pile of vegetables behind me on the counter. Then her eyes strayed to the smaller pile still waiting to be peeled or chopped.
    â€œYou aren’t finished yet.”
    â€œVery good!” Ben cried before I could answer. “Your powers of observation amaze us, one and all. Now, shoo, be off with you. I have work to do.”
    Lisa frowned but didn’t answer him. Instead, she rolled her eyes as if to ask why she had to put up with such a moron.
    â€œYou have to work faster,” she told me.
    â€œI’ll try,” I said.
    â€œThere are already pots waiting to be washed,” she pointed out. “You’re not even finished the vegetables, and you haven’t started…”
    â€œBecause I have been giving her other tasks to do as well,” Ben cut her off. “Will you please leave the kitchen matters in my hands. If Shelby doesn’t work out, I’ll let you know, but leave it to me to put her to use where she’s most needed. Everything will get done.”
    Lisa looked as though she had a few things to say to him. Her mouth opened, but a sudden, strange noise in the walls distracted her.
    â€œWhat’s that?” I asked, startled. It sounded as though there was something trapped in there, banging and howling all at once.
    â€œIt’s only the pipes.” Ben’s hand swept downward, dismissing my alarm. “I just turned on the water to fill the sink. It does this sometimes. Air trapped or something. Nothing to worry about.”
    Having been cut off for the second time, Lisa sighed in exasperation and left the kitchen. As she passed me on her way to the door, she hissed something that sounded like “Faster!” though I couldn’t be certain.
    Ben must have heard it too. “Don’t worry,” he grinned. “She never brings her whip to work. Anyway, you’re doing fine.”
    I didn’t feel as though I was doing fine, but I can say one thing about my first day on the job: it flew by faster than I could have believed possible. There was so much to do, and when the waitresses, Nadine and another, older lady named Ruth, got there, things really got busy.
    I don’t know how Ben kept up. Nadine and Ruth kept coming in with lunch orders written on the pads they carried in pockets of their aprons. They’d clip each order to a wheel that was hanging over the main work area, and Ben would glance at it and fly into action, while still taking care of everything else that was already on the go. It gave the illusion that he had about ten hands, all moving at once.
    If I’d had as much to do as he did, I’d have been so overwhelmed I would have given up, but rather than getting flustered, he whistled and hummed as he worked. As for me, I could barely keep up with the rapidly growing piles of dishes even though all I had to do with them was load them in the dishwasher. It wasn’t like the kind people have at home but rather remindedme of a car wash. Rollers slowly moved trays of dishes through the machine until they came out the other side, washed and rinsed and almost too hot to touch. I left them for a few moments before unloading and by then they were dry because any remaining water on them had steamed off.
    Nadine went out of her way to be friendly to me, stopping for a few seconds now and then to offer a word or two of encouragement. The other