Chubby clasped his hands in front of him on the dinette table. "It's on you. Stones, it's your life."

"Don't I know it."

"I'll tell you though, I think you're bein' hasty. Whynchoo give it a few more weeks?"

Stony flushed with panic. "No way! Come Monday morning you can catch my act at Cresthaven!"

Chubby sighed, shifted his weight on the high Formica-backed dinette chair. "You know, you may not be able to get in the union ever again."

"I'll live."

"Yeah, you'll live, but—"

"Hey look, my quittin' ain't no reflection on you an' Pop. It's just—"

"But it is, Stony, don't you see that? What's it gonna look like when your old man shows up for work without you Monday morning?"

"It's gonna look like I quit."

"You're killin' your dad, Stony," Chubby said sadly.

Fear hit Stony inside like a strobe light. He stared at his thumbnails pressed side by side in front of him. "Chubby," he whispered huskily, "lemme breathe."

***

On Friday, the last day, Stony and Tommy drove into work boycotting each other, Tommy staring straight ahead, Stony, his head at right angles with his body, staring out the side window.

After Stony changed into his gear in the shanty, he started taking coffee orders, but Jimmy O'Day stopped him.

"Let Phillip do it today."

"Who?" Stony, poised with paper and pencil, followed Jimmy's stare to a far corner of the shanty where a red-headed kid about Stony's age struggled with his utility belt. Stony glared at Jimmy, but Jimmy just winked.

"Hey, kid." Blackie smiled. "We're gonna start you off easy. You know what a gofer is?"

"Huh?" Phillip looked up, embarrassed at the difficulty he was having with the buckle.

"Hey, take that off," Blackie said. "Stony, give 'im the list. Just take everybody's coffee order an' go over to the Greek's. You know the Greek's?"

"The luncheonette?"

"Hey, this kid's on the ball!"

Phillip smiled, pleased he was off to a good start.

"Lemme go with him," Stony said.

"He can handle it himself." Eddie took the paper from Stony and handed it to Phillip.

Phillip wrote down every word of the orders, abbreviating nothing. Stony and Malfie didn't want anything.

"Make sure you get Artie's order in the trailer," Tommy added, bending down to lace his boots.

Phillip ran from the shed wearing his hard hat, the money in one hand, the order slip and pencil in the other. After he'd scampered across the street, Eddie dragged out an open gray cardboard box with rows of coffee in Styrofoam cups and stacks of cellophaned Danish.

"You fuckin' guys." Stony scratched his head. Everyone grabbed a coffee and a Danish and filed out to the building.

Stony and Malfie sat on upended cable reels smoking and staring over the smog-shrouded rooftops.

"Hey, Stony!" Vinny's head appeared in the stairwell. "C'mon, he's comin' back!" Vinny's fat face looked twice as wide with that gap-tooth grin. Sighing, Stony crushed his cigarette with his boot.