I know the rhythm of this restaurant so well, you’d think I was a walking metronome. The afternoon slump usually picks up right at five PM, when employees from the surrounding office buildings stumble in for an early dinner or a happy hour libation. And then it’s full speed ahead until the kitchen closes at nine PM. That’s why, today, it’s so startling that every booth and barstool remain empty at six o’clock.

“What is going on?” I ask my fellow waitress and favorite coworker, Joy. “It’s like a ghost town in here.”

“I don’t know.” She shrugs. “But at this rate, I’m not gonna make enough in tips to cover the sitter I hired.”

“You can have the next table,” I reply. “Even if they sit in my section.”

“Thanks, sweetie. My two little hungry mouths at home really appreciate it.”

When it’s peak hours and I’m running from table to table, I don’t have time to think about the soreness of my feet or that I haven’t had a chance to sit down or take a sip of water since the moment I clocked in. But the slower the shift, the more tired I get. Boredom is the kiss of death at an after-school job. There are only so many salt and pepper shakers you can refill and wipe down. All I can think is that when I get home, I still have at least two hours of homework to finish, and that I would have been better off not showing up today.

“It’s the virus,” Andres, the world’s sweetest busboy with an accent that makes every straight woman and gay man swoon, explains to us as he walks past with a plastic bin of polished glasses. “People scared to leave their house. The office building across the street? Everyone work at home today. This whole country… shut down soon.”

“Oh my God, stop it!” Joy says. “If my kids can’t go to day care, I’m going to completely lose it.”

The whole country shutting down? I don’t even know what that means or what that looks like. It sounds a bit dramatic for my tastes.

“Don’t listen to Andres,” I say to Joy once he wanders off to the kitchen. “I bet something got lost in translation. This whole thing is going to blow over.”