The Eldorado Network Read Online Free Page A

Louis braced himself and prayed that his fingers would not lose their grip. Eventually the man stormed out and shouted furiously for a taxi. Luis followed, cautiously, and eased himself into the back seat, never taking his eye off the owner. 'When I say go,' he told the driver, 'please drive like hell.' He thrust the bottles out of the window and into the owner's arms. 'Go!' he shouted. The taxi leaped forward with a scream of wheelspin, flinging Luis back against the cushions. The last he saw of the owner was a contorted figure desperately failing to stop one bottle slipping through his arms and smashing on the cobblestones.
    Luis had to interrupt his mother's piano-practice in order to borrow the taxi-fare. She wasn't interested in hearing about his experience and she was annoyed at the interruption. She was also very annoyed at Chopin, who was resisting her with more than his usual stubbornness. To punish them both, she made Luis stand beside her and beat time. He wasn't much good at beating time, so she soon had the satisfaction of correcting him. That left only Chopin to be overcome, and Senora Cabrillo was fairly confident that one day she would beat him too. She had the stamina, and Chopin wasn't getting any younger.

Chapter 4
    The following week Luis's father was transferred to Valencia, where Luis got a job as a waiter and kept it for almost a month.
    He quite enjoyed being a waiter, and he learned a lot, especially from serving tourists.
    'They say they want coffee,' he complained to Jose-Carlos, the head waiter, on his third day. 'I just gave them their soup and already they want coffee!'
    Jose-Carlos identified the table. 'Americans,' he said approvingly. 'Give them coffee now. Give them what they want. They ask for coffee, water, ketchup, ice-cream, more coffee, hot rolls, cold rolls, stale rolls, cheese before beef, fruit before fish, soup with jam  -- anything, as long as we have got it, you give it to them. Make 'em happy.'
    'Yes, but coffee on top of soup ..." Luis shook his head.
    'Listen: don't tell people what they like. 'Jose-Carlos gave him a shove. 'You give them what they want and they'll give you what you want.'
    The Americans got ample coffee and Luis got a good tip. Thereafter his whole attitude changed, and nothing was impossible. He learned to anticipate: hungry patrons need food at once, if it's only bread and olives; when the steak is tough make sure the knives are sharp; to the man who pays the bill goes the tastiest portion. And so on.
    Towards the end, Luis discovered a harmless little ruse which boosted his tips appreciably. He had just presented a bill and he was halfway back to the kitchen when he realised he'd overcharged them. Included an order of mushrooms which got cancelled. Tiny mistake. For a second he hesitated, looking back at the table where a large, bald man was laughing at somebody else's joke while he spread banknotes over the bill, Luis knew what to do: say nothing,- cross out mushrooms and pocket the difference. That's what anybody else would do. So he went back and corrected the bill. At first the bald man was irritated; he thought Luis had forgotten something and was now adding it on. Then he was pleased  -- more pleased than the few pesetas' saving was worth. In the end most of it went to swell Luis's tip.
    After that Luis regularly forgot to cancel the mushrooms.
    Jose-Carlos observed how frequently Luis had to return to his tables and adjust the bill, and he commented on it. 'I try to make people happy,' Luis said.
    'I don't mind that,' Jose-Carlos told him. 'Just make it eggs mayonnaise once in a while.'
    It was neither mushrooms nor egg mayonnaise that got Luis sacked, however, but cherry ice-cream.
    He had begun to make something of a personal crusade out of giving customers exactly what they wanted. Coffee between courses was too easy; he nagged the kitchen into stocking hot mustard for the English, pumpernickel for the Germans, escargots for the French. Most of