OCR Text |
Show page 8 the counter. He smelled the lipstick-rimmed glasses before plunging them in the sink. He xvas at the stove frying burgers for a full counter of yardmen and a crew off a freight when Nick came in to take over the night shift. Nick wore his fifty dollar suit and his fifteen dollar hat and he said, "Hallo, hallo, everybody'." He pulled a clean apron and tied it high around his waist and walked the length of the counter calling everyone by name, even Big Orb the brakeman and Calico Jim the fireman. Then he drank a cup of coffee and dismissed Johnny Mack, "Scramus!" Johnny Mack said, "I'll take coffee up to the girls tonight." Nick looked at his helper blandly. He came near Johnny Mack and moistened his full lips before speaking. He looked past Johnny Mack before speaking. He looked out into the setting sky. He could hear the click of a telegraph key in the depot. It carried him across an ocean. "No," he said, "I, Nick Panagiatopulos, has to do this one thing always. You understand me why, Johnny. Listen, in the old country my sisters -- in Chicago I hear this, my mother writes me -- have to make the money when the soldiers come. I feel not one thing so much. One suit I have and one hat and I come to America and have love for everybody. Money go to Fotianos and my mother. But I feel not one thing so much as my sisters making with the soldiers. But me, me, Nick Panagiatopulos, can here in America make the girls happier. You understand me x?hy, Johnny?" Nick turned back to the big black stove and Johnny Mack |