The man wanted her to stay. A fly buzzed somewhere.

“Well, in a sense, you got the right idea. You go to the A.F. of L., they won’t give you the time of day if you haven’t been on a machine for eighty years. You people haven’t got no skills, you’d just be up the creek without oars if it wasn’t for us.”

“What did the union do?” Max was asking her softly.

“I don’t really know. But a month later, I went by the place and it was boarded up.”

“Then what?”

“Then I got a good job. In a Greek restaurant where I used to eat. With tips, I made about twenty dollars a week. That’s why I’m sick now.”

She paused, taking up the blanket and wrapping it around herself.

“Are you cold?”

“I can’t tell.”

“I know a couple who run a little ceramic place,” Max said. “They make their own things and sell them to retailers. The pottery is pretty awful, vases with sleeping Mexicans in sombreros painted on them, all that, birds for the lawn, but still, they’re always needing people. Have you ever done any drawing—anything like that?”

“I went to the Art Students League for a while,” she said. “It wasn’t anything, just something to do.”

“You wouldn’t have to be Leonardo for this. It’s mechanical.”

“I’m not ungrateful. But the thing is—I have a job waiting for me—in a drive-in at Laguna Beach. As soon as this—this thing is out of me. There’s a waitress where I worked who’s going down there. The tips are supposed to be good, and it’s supposed to be nice there.”

Despairing at the thought of her disappearing again, he cast about in his mind for something compelling enough to hold her, here, where he could see her. But what was he thinking of?

“Do you know what time it is?”

“My clock is broken,” she said. “But I’d guess it’s around six or so.” She switched the blanket away from her feet and went to the window. “What a joint this is!” she exclaimed. “I have to put my head out the window into the flowerbed to see what the weather is. But it’s so cheap.” She pushed aside the cloth and looked out. “How odd! There’s actually a cloud in the sky, like real weather.”

“I must telephone now,” he said. “Is there a drugstore around?”

“It’s three blocks from here,” she said. “Far.”

She looked at him quickly, then away, and he realized she was making an effort not to ask him to stay. “I won’t be long,” he said, “I have to call the neighbor who takes care of my son—”

A curious expression crossed her face. He knew he’d given her an important piece of news, one that disturbed her.