英语小故事第156期：Man Leaves $50K to Waitress

A waitress who worked in a truck stop restaurant received $50,000 in a will. The popular Do-Drop-In Truck Stop is on interstate 10 just west of El Paso, Texas. It’s open 24/7, and it seats 80. Matthew had been a regular customer there for the last ten years. He was 70 when he started eating breakfast there. He drove a 1980 Cadillac that was missing three of its hubcaps. The car looked like it hadn’t been washed since 1981.

Matthew was a skinny, bald guy. He wore glasses that sat crooked on his nose, and he was missing one of his front teeth. Every so often he joked about his missing tooth. “Ask me what happened to it,” he would ask his waitress. She would ask. “I ran into a door,” he would reply, and then laugh like it was the funniest joke in the world. Most waitresses thought he was a little weird. Each of them hoped he wouldn’t sit in her section. He usually sat at a four-person booth all by himself. He often spilled food onto the table and seat. To make matters worse, he was a terrible tipper—one dollar was it, even though he usually had several free refills of black coffee.

“Oh, he’s just a harmless, lonely old guy,” said Amber. Matthew had taken a shine to Amber. After the first couple of months of eating at Do-Drop-In, he made it a point to sit in her section. He had other jokes which he shared with Amber, but they were as bad as his tooth joke. She laughed at them anyway.