Free Interstate by Stephen Dixon Page B

customers walking past them fast? called out “Anyone here? I’d like to drop off something if you don’t mind,” put the flyers on the counter to leave there, saw him lying behind it on the floor, ran out to the street screaming “Someone’s been hurt, robbery must’ve been, help, people, someone’s been butchered or shot, man behind the wall, man behind the wall,” is what he kept saying, instead of “behind the counter” probably, and pointed to the restaurant but wouldn’t go in when some people from the street did, register emptied, pockets untouched, cheap watch gone, thief had to be kidding about the safe or else had no idea what a simple place it was, police said it could have been one of the persons who ran in to help or see him who took the money and watch or a few of them because usually when a robber shoots you that bad he gets out fast and doesn’t waste even a few extra seconds looking for dough and why would he take a cheap watch? “though could be it was a combo of both: thief and passersby,” his boss calls her and says what happened and that he wants her to know he’s not one who likes giving bad news but Nat told him to if anything like this happened to him, “for you know he was once robbed with some guns a few years ago and was concerned he might be again and not get off so lucky,” and she says “No, he never told me, though of course you must know what happened years ago with his youngest daughter, my sister, Julie,” and the boss says “Nat once mentioned, that’s about it, but not her name, though someone else told me he served time for something connected to it, like getting the guys who killed her but where he was completely in the right and like who wouldn’t have done the same thing if he could? so it never stopped me from keeping him on,” and she says “I’m sure he appreciated you for that, but really, he only spoke about my sister once in that regard in all the time he’s worked for you?—that’s surprising, since it seemed the thing uppermost and forever in his mind,” and the boss says “Twice, then, even three times, let’s call it four, but quickly, like where he’s reading a newspaper at work with a similar article in it where an innocent kid got killed between street drug dealers—crossfire, what’s in the papers so much today—and it comes back to him and he says something ‘You know, something like this happened to my kid,’ and he just touches on it but I can see by his face and so quickly into another subject or news story that he doesn’t want to go deeper so I don’t…but you know, he also told me to call you if other things ever happened to him which he seemed a little worried about, like getting a heart attack, not that he wasn’t strong as an old bull before he got shot, or just not answering his phone when he didn’t show up for work and it turned out, as he said it’s turned out for a couple of old bulls he knew, that he was dead in bed from a stroke the night before in one second flat—anyway, missus, he seems to be doing okay, as I told you from everything that’s been told me, probably be in the hospital a few weeks but no complications expected the nurse said who answered the phone in his Intensive Care where I called, so rest easy for now and first chance I’m allowed to see him—Intensive Care won’t let me because I’m not family, but he should be out of there soon—I’ll tell him I did what he asked me to and that’s spoken to you,” and she says “Please call me collect any hour of the day if you learn that his condition’s deteriorated or just phone me collect after you’ve seen him, when you have a free moment, and of course give him our love,” and she takes his home phone number and number of the I.C. unit her father’s in.
    His good