Summary

Oliver and the narrator are two truck drivers who stop at a restaurant for a break. An extremely small man comes over to the table to take their order, and the narrator orders whatever the daily special is, “something fresh and quick” (62). The small man comes back to the table empty handed, and the narrator begins to get frustrated, as he is very thirsty. The man explains that he cannot reach the fridge. Embarrassed, he explains that normally his wife opens the fridge, but she fell and is on the floor.

Oliver and the narrator go back to the kitchen to look and see a woman “like a marine beast washed up by the tide” (64). The narrator tells Oliver to do something as he’s the one who decided to go to the kitchen. While the two try to lift her, the small man...