6:30 AM. The city has barely begun stirring, but the Busy Bee restaurant is already packed. Many of the customers eat in silence, each in his own separate universe. A woman in a green-and-white “Winos and Italians” T-shirt occupies one stool. A man with salt-and-pepper hair, mustache, glasses, white shirt, and tie sits next to a businesswoman type clad in khaki skirt and blouse. Both sip their coffee and stare glumly ahead. A reporter plops himself on a stool and orders steak and eggs. A few minutes later a middle-aged waitress, without being asked, puts out bottles of catsup, hot sauce, and steak sauce. Then she delivers a plate with steak, eggs, and hash browns. An accompanying dish contains whole wheat toast and a packet of mixed fruit jelly.
Tattoo returns from the john and borrows someone’s newspaper. Ben-Gurion asks, “Don’t you ever buy a paper?”
A sheriff’s policeman sits down. He takes a cup of coffee and puts a heaping teaspoon of sugar into it. As he sips the brew, Ponytail pays her bill and leaves exactly 65 cents in change. You get the feeling she leaves the same 65 cent tip every single day.
The sheriff’s policeman doesn’t bother to join the conversation. He shows more interest in joking with the waitress. “Earlene, let’s run away from here. Where are we gonna go to?”
Earlene answers, “If it was me, he’d share it with me.” Then she addresses Number One. “I’ve got a book at home, real estate in Ohio. You could buy buildings out there with the spare change in your pocket–$50,000 or so. We could go there, me and you.”
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Number Three pays the three checks. “Alex, I’m gonna get my hair cut just for you,” Earlene tells him. “I’m gonna lose weight just for you. I will wait breathlessly till you return tomorrow, Alex.”
