@@@@@ In 'thirty-five he works in a restaurant
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In 'thirty-five he works in a restaurant for almost a year, the best dishwasher they ever had(The rush hour lasts from twelve to three at that end of the kitchenThe dishes come clanking down the dumbwaiter, and the tray man mops the food and grease with his hand, fingers the lipstick on the glasses to loosen it, and drops them in a rackIn the machine, the steam vibrates and sings, whips out at the other end, where the finish man pulls out the tray with tongs, and wiggles the plates with his fingertips as he flips them on a pileYou don't grab it with your bare hand, Jack
After work Red goes back to his furnished room (two-fifty a week, the carpeting on the stairs has thickened with age and springs underfoot like soft dusty turf) and lies down on his bedIf he's not too pooped, he gets up after a while, and drifts down to the bar around the corner(The gray cracked asphalt, the garbage cans spilling over in the areaways, the stippled light of the neon sign, two letters are missing
A man always has philosophyI'll tell ya, Red, I used to think for a time I made a mistake gettin' marriedI used to get mad, you know, I'd start wondering what am I workin' for, but, aah, you get over itYou take those two kids over there feeling each other in that boothRight now one of them can't even breathe without the other -- my old lady used to be like that with meI don't get mad, I know what the score is, those kids are gonna end up like you, like me, like everybody
(The beer is flat and tastes like pennies Me, Red says, I never horse around much with the womenThey just want to trap ya, I seen enough of it
Aw, it ain't that bad, there's good things about marriage and women, but it ain't what you think you're gonna get when you start offYou know a married man has worries, I'll tell ya, Red, sometimes I wish I been the places you have
Yeah, I'll take Two-bit Annie
In the brothel the girls wear halters and trim panties with a tropical print, an actress has made the style famous this yearThey gather like burlesque queens in the living room with the ashtrays and the chipped modernistic furniture
Okay, Pearl, let's go
He follows her up the gray spongy carpeting of the stairs, watching the automatic waggle of her hips
Haven't seen ya in a long time, Re