In addition to Olya, the head waiter Lavrik, an important elderly uncle with a thick gray mustache, the cooks Tonya and Lyuba, always quarreling with each other, the waitresses Irochka and Marina, and the second dishwasher, a middle-aged woman, Svetlana Nikolaevna, with whom Olya changed in a day. But Olga went to Ogonyok with her aunt almost seven days a week, helping the waiters set the tables and sometimes replacing one of them.

At first it was very difficult.

Pulling her rubber gloves up to her shoulders, Olga tossed mountains of dishes in a tin trough, going crazy from the wet steam and greasy fumes. It seemed that there would...