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than likely, doing just as good a job and with less fumbling.
I saw that Jo Ann was getting ready to go home, so I walked over to her and asked her how it went.
"I got a funny feeling in my gizzard, Mark," she told me. "Buy me a drink and I'll tell you all about it."
So we went down to the corner bar and took a booth way in the back.
Joe came over and he was grumbling about business, which was unusual for him. "If it weren't for you folks over at
the paper," be said, "I'd close up and go home. That must be what all my customers are doing; they sure ain't coming
here. Can you think of anything more disgusting than going straight home from your job?"
We told him that we couldn't, and to show that he appreciated our attitude he wiped off the table - a thing he almost
never did.
He brought the drinks and Jo Ann told me about the old lady and her hundredth birthday. "It was horrible. There she
sat in her rocking chair in that bare living room, rocking back and forth, gently, delicately, the way old ladies rock. And
she was glad to see me, and she smiled so nice and she introduced me all around."
"Well, that was fine," I said. "Were there a lot of people there?"
"Not a soul."
I choked on _my_ drink. "But you said she introduced..."
"She did. To empty chairs."
"Good Lord!"
"They all were dead," she said.
"Now, let's get this straight..."
"She said, 'Miss Evans, I want you to meet my old friend, Mrs. Smith. She lives just down the street. I recall the day
she moved into the neighborhood, back in '33. Those were hard times, I tell you.' Chattering on, you know, like most
old ladies do. And me, standing there and staring at an empty chair, wondering what to do. And, Mark, I don't know if
I did right or not, but I said, 'Hello, Mrs. Smith. I am glad to know you.' And do you know what happened then?"
"No," I said. "How could I?"
"The 'old lady said, just as casually as could be - just conversationally, as if it were the most natural thing in all the
world-'You know, Miss Evans, Mrs. Smith died three years ago. Don't you think it's nice she dropped in to see me?'"
"She was pulling your leg," I said. "Some of these old ones sometimes get pretty sly."
"I don't think she was. She introduced me all around; there were six or seven of them, and all of them were dead."
"She was happy, thinking they were there. What difference does it make?"
"It was horrible," said Jo Ann.
So we had another drink to chase away the horror.
Joe was still down in the mouth. "Did you ever see the like of it? You could shoot off a cannon in this joint and not
touch a single soul. By this time, usually, they'd be lined up against the bar, and it'd be a dull evening if someone
hadn't taken a poke at someone else - although you understand I run a decent place."
"Sure you do," I said. "Sit down and have a drink with us."
"It ain't right that I should," said Joe. "A bartender should never take a drink when he's conducting business. But I
feel so low that if you don't mind, I'll take you up on it."
He went back to the bar and got a bottle and a glass and we had quite a few.
The corner, he said, had always been a good spot - steady business all the time, with a rush at noon and a good
crowd in the evening. But business had started dropping off six weeks before, and now was down to nothing.
"It's the same all over town," he said, "some places worse than others. This place is one of the worst; I just don't
know what's gotten into people."
We said we didn't, either. I fished out some money and left it for the drinks, and we made our escape.
Outside I asked Jo Ann to have dinner with me, but she said it was the night her bridge club met, so I drove her home
and went on to my place.
I take a lot of ribbing at the office for living so far out of town, but I like it. I got the cottage cheap, and it's better than
living in a couple of cooped-up rooms in a third-rate resident hotel-which would be the best I could afford if I stayed in
town.
After I'd fixed up a steak and some fried potatoes for supper, I went down to the dock and rowed out into the lake a
ways. I sat there for a while, watching the lighted windows winking all around the shore and listening to the sounds
you never hear in daytime - the muskrat swimming and the soft chuckling of the ducks and the occasional slap of a
jumping fish.
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