Chapter 8

The Last Day

11:13:15 p.m.

Truly awful music played from an ancient jukebox. A decrepit postcard taped haphazardly to the register sternly proclaimed:

"In God We Trust.

All Others Have to PAY!"

That card had been taped in place by the owner, who still lived but rarely came around. A formerly rich stockbroker humbled by a serious of disastrous investment schemes, Richard Brooks had used his last remaining savings to buy the diner. He had renovated an old property that he had taken in trade for a long forgotten debt and opened the diner as a hedge against poverty. Over the decades, the diner had provided his best source of support and a boatload of valuable tax deductions. Still, Richard was no nearer the Last Chance this Christmas Eve than he was on any other day. Besides having its own special place in the diner, that warning postcard was the source of unending conversation, none of which came near the boring truth. Sometime in the distant past, it was said, a forgotten short order cook taped it there after an inebriated regular attempted to secure financing for a meal. Someone thought the cook's last name had been Short. Others argued that Shorty had been the cook's nickname, given by an equally forgotten waitress. Still others claimed that the forgotten cook had a name with very few letters; hence it was a short name, not the name "Short." Those with enough seniority to remember a waitress and short order cook from 1968 often wrangled over the names of other forgotten patron saints of the Last Chance Diner.