The Uptown Rose

I don't know why on the last story submission I made I was thinking I had no more tales to share. Lack of sleep and new motherhood I suppose. I was rummaging through my desk drawers and found a picture that reminded me of all the things that happened when I worked at "The Uptown Rose..." It was by far the favorite of all jobs I ever had, bar tending and managing the place on some nights. But unfortunately due to the state of the economy, the place closed down. I know it's supposed to open back up in August, but who knows if it will happen. We'll call my employer Missy for sake of protecting identity, and I will change the names of other employees as well.

Missy designed the building and it was built in a decrepit building that was originally Rose Gin Company. There are old pictures of all of Henderson in that restaurant, even of the restaurant itself when it was a Rose Gin selling and caring for horses. There was one picture where there are model A or T cars, not sure, and some horse and buggies on the main street. She told me the place was in shambles with beds were pulled in by drug addicts who had made a homeless life there. She took nothing and turned it into a beautiful building with hardwood floors accented with deep red carpet. Rose wood accented the walls in the dining area, and the pub had rose wood paneling for walls. I was taken aback by the beauty of the place with its high ceilings, and the way the eye was drawn around the room by the keen design of the architecture.

I was ecstatic to work in such a beautiful place. I was even more intrigued with my first encounters. It started as I was checking out the duties to be done on the check off list. As I looked down at the list reading, I could see someone walking in front of the booths. They were going from the front of the restaurant to the back and stopped at the last booth as if they sat down. This particular phenomenon would happen nearly every day, in the morning when we were beginning, and sometimes in the afternoon. There were times I and other waitresses thought there was a customer there and would trot on over to an empty booth. There were also times that the thing would seem to go up in the mezzanine. The stairs to that was directly behind the last booth. That phenomenon would only seem to happen at the end of the shift or at night. I would constantly go up there to check things out.

I am beginning to get off track here. I should tell you all the story behind the picture. It was the first week I had been working there. Well we got a special guest, I knew he looked familiar but two and two didn't make four as I waited on his table. I just thought I probably had seen him around a lot. Well it turns out that he was the guy who played Tommy in the TV show "Martin". So some of the chicks were in a tizzy looking out the kitchen door like "He is fine!" So Tammy decides she wants a picture and calls up Alisha, who is in stripes next to me in pink in the picture, to get her camera and fresh batteries for it. Alisha shows up just as he was finishing his meal and we get him to come in the kitchen to get a picture. And by the way, he was seated at the last booth that we always the entity go to.

So I felt weird as I find it rude to bother people, celebrity or not. But he comes in the kitchen and she takes five pictures. The first two were dark and bad quality because the flash didn't go off. Wrong setting and all. So we got on the right setting, and the flash went off. We didn't know at the time as it didn't have display as most digitals do. But what got me was, when they took the picture, I remember hearing something, and I turned my head to see the door behind us closing. Now that is an out only door which is big and heavy! And we were the only ones in the kitchen to go out that door. Alisha noticed it too and said that she was getting cold chills.

As for the kitchen, that was the scariest place to be, especially alone at night. And from what I heard from the chefs, early in the morning when they would do prep for banquets and parties and such. After hours, I would be counting the drawer and doing paper work in the office, and I would hear pots and pans banging around in the kitchen. Sometimes it was like someone cooking with the bigger utensils, and sometimes I would literally think someone had broken in and was making a ruckus about their thieving. I called the cops once in the beginning only to be embarrassed, as I had locked myself in the office until they arrived and there was nothing out of place. I was the only one brave enough to walk through that kitchen at night to get to the office. I would get the most horrible feeling of dread, but something in my head always told me, don't run, don't let it know you are frightened. I pretended I couldn't sense it.

Another thing that would happen there is in the banquet room, you would sometimes here singing. While doing rounds to be sure all was locked up after a shift, I would often go in there thinking the radio had been left on. Also the door would seem to unlock itself even though we were positive that it had been locked. I had tried this myself a few times thinking that maybe my coworkers were to blame. I would lock it at the beginning of the shift, granted we weren't using the room. At the end of the shift, it would some times be unlocked.

Well that is all I can really recall for now. I feel like I am leaving something out! If I am, it will be another story for another day.

Good night, and happy hunting to you all!