At the Greek's

He glanced up and down the street. To the right, cars stretched off as far as he could see. To the left . . . police vehicles! Cop cars with the lights flashing, an ambulance, rescue vans, even a fire engine.

Hell! The traffic blocked the entrance to the parking lot. No one would be able to get out for hours. Hell. Hell. Hell.

Still, it could be worse. If he had to be late, tonight wasn’t a bad time for it. His wife would be teaching her six-to-ten class at State. His son, well, his son would be doing whatever it was his son did these days. His daughter . . . he knew what she was doing. He just preferred not to think about it. So long as she didn’t get pregnant.

He might as well grab supper. There was a sub shop down the way. He frequently went there for lunch. Why not dinner as well?

Feeling almost jaunty, he headed down the street. The sub shop was actually in the direction of the emergency vehicles, so he soon found himself approaching the scence of whatever it was that had happened. There were police everywhere. Their attentions seemed to be focused on an aged hatchback parked across the street. Yellow tape sealed off the area, and, strangely, the EMTs had draped a tarp over the parked car.

He came to his sub shop and entered. It was empty of customers, which was a good thing. He hated to eat where his students might see him. Not befitting the dignity of the office, and all that.

The Greek behind the counter took his order for a meatball sub without comment. Morris realized the man was staring over his shoulder and out the front windows of the shop. He turned. The ambulance had driven up beside the parked car. Police were removing something from the car, wrapped in some kind of bag. They put it on a wheeled stretcher. The loaded it on the ambulance, which, in turn, drove away in a fury of red lights.

“Say,” he asked the man behind the counter. “What happened out there?”

The Greek shrugged uneasily. “Donno. They found a body.”

“A body?”

“Dead man, yeah. They found him. Kid tried to steal the car and he found the body.”

Morris couldn’t help smiling. It was terrible, of course, but there was something funny about it. The thief making a clean getaway, only to find something rotting in the back. “Did they say what the body . . um . . died of?”

Again the man shrugged. “No one told me. Here’s your sandwich.”

He took it and a can of soda to a window table. Not bad, he thought, watching the police and crime scene investigators do their thing outside. Not bad at all. A good sandwich, and a free floor show. What more could you ask?

The sandwich went down easily. Then, he sipped his soda while he watched men in uniform removing things in transparent bags from the parked car. All very interesting.

“I thought I’d find you here.”
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