"Lawrence Watt-Evans - Why I left Harry's All night Hamburger" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watt-Evans Lawrence)

Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers
by Lawrence Watt-Evans
_"Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers" is copyright 1987 by Lawrence Watt Evans, and first
appeared in ISAAC ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE, July 1987. All rights reserved._

Harry's was a nice place -- probably still is. I haven't been back lately. It's a couple of miles off I-79, a
few exits north of Charleston, near a place called Sutton. Used to do a pretty fair business until they
finished building the Interstate out from Charleston and made it worthwhile for some fast-food joints to
move in right next to the cloverleaf; nobody wanted to drive the extra miles to Harry's after that. Folks
used to wonder how old Harry stayed in business, as a matter of fact, but he did all right even without the
Interstate trade. I found that out when I worked there.

Why did I work there, instead of at one of the fast-food joints? Because my folks lived in a little house
just around the corner from Harry's, out in the middle of nowhere -- not in Sutton itself, just out there on
the road. Wasn't anything around except our house and Harry's place. He lived out back of his
restaurant. That was about the only thing I could walk to in under an hour, and I didn't have a car.

This was when I was sixteen. I needed a job, because my dad was out of work again and if I was gonna
do anything I needed my own money. Mom didn't mind my using her car -- so long as it came back with
a full tank of gas and I didn't keep it too long. That was the rule. So I needed some work, and Harry's
All-Night Hamburgers was the only thing within walking distance. Harry said he had all the help he
needed -- two cooks and two people working the counter, besides himself. The others worked days,
two to a shift, and Harry did the late night stretch all by himself. I hung out there a little, since I didn't have
anywhere else, and it looked like pretty easy work -- there was hardly any business, and those guys
mostly sat around telling dirty jokes. So I figured it was perfect.

Harry, though, said that he didn't need any help.

I figured that was probably true, but I wasn't going to let logic keep me out of driving my mother's car. I
did some serious begging, and after I'd made his life miserable for a week or two Harry said he'd take a
chance and give me a shot, working the graveyard shift, midnight to eight A.M., as his counterman,
busboy, and janitor all in one.

I talked him down to 7:30, so I could still get to school, and we had us a deal. I didn't care about school
so much myself, but my parents wanted me to go, and it was a good place to see my friends, y'know?
Meet girls and so on.

So I started working at Harry's, nights. I showed up at midnight the first night, and Harry gave me an
apron and a little hat, like something from a diner in an old movie, same as he wore himself. I was
supposed to wait tables and clean up, not cook, so I don't know why he wanted me to wear them, but
he gave them to me, and I needed the bucks, so I put them on and pretended I didn't notice that the
apron was all stiff with grease and smelled like something nasty had died on it a few weeks back. And
Harry -- he's a funny old guy, always looked fiftyish, as far back as I can remember. Never young, but
never getting really old, either, y'know? Some people do that, they just seem to go on forever. Anyway,
he showed me where everything was in the kitchen and back room, told me to keep busy cleaning up
whatever looked like it wanted cleaning, and told me, over and over again, like he was really worried that
I was going to cause trouble, "Don't bother the customers. Just take their orders, bring them their food,

"Sure," I said, "I got it."
"Good," he said, "We get some funny guys in here at night, but they're good customers, most of them, so