The Grapes of Wrath | Page 3

fan turned sile ntly in its circular hole over the entrance,
and flies buzzed excitedly about the doors and windows, butting the screens. Inside,
one man, the truck driver, sat on a stool and rested his elbows on the counter and
looked over his coffee at the lean and lonely waitress. He talked the smart listless
language of the roadsides to her. "I seen him about three months ago. He had a
operation. Cut somepin out. I forget what." And she—"Doesn't seem no longer than a
week I seen him myself. Looked fine then. He 's a nice sort of a guy when he ain't
stinko." Now and then the flies roared softly at the screen door. The coffee machine
spurted steam, and the waitress, without l ooking, reached behind her and shut it off.
Outside, a man walking along the edge of the highway crossed over and approached
the truck. He walked slowly to the front of it, put his hand on the shiny fender, and
looked at the No Riders sticker on the windshield. For a moment he was about to walk
on down the road, but instead he sat on the running board on the side away from the
restaurant. He was not over thir ty. His eyes were very dark brown and there was a hint
of brown pigment in his eyeballs. His ch eek bones were high and wide, and strong
deep lines cut down his cheeks, in curves beside his mouth. His upper lip was long,
and since his teeth protruded, th e lips stretched to cover them, for this man kept his lips
closed. His hands were hard, wi th broad fingers and nails as thick and ridged as little
clam shells. The space between thumb and fo refinger and the hams of his hands were
shiny with callus.
The man's clothes were new—all of them, cheap and new. His gray cap was so new
that the visor was still stiff and the button still on, not shapeless and bulged as it would
be when it had served for a while all th e various purposes of a cap—carrying sack,
towel, handkerchief. His suit was of cheap gray hardcloth and so new that there were
creases in the trousers. His blue chambray shirt was stiff and smooth with filler. The
coat was too big, the trousers too short, for he was a tall man. The coat shoulder peaks
hung down on his arms, and even then the slee ves were too short and the front of the
coat flapped loosely over his stomach. He wore a pair of new tan shoes of the kind
called "army last," hob-nailed and with half-c ircles like horseshoes to protect the edges
of the heels from wear. This man sat on the running board and took off his cap and
mopped his face with it. Then he put on the cap, and by pulling started the future ruin
of the visor. His feet caught his attention. He leaned down and loosened the shoelaces,

and did not tie the ends again. Over his head the exhaust of the Diesel engine
whispered in quick puffs of blue smoke.
The music stopped in the restaurant and a man's voice spoke from the loudspeaker,
but the waitress did not turn him off, fo r she didn't know the music had stopped. Her
exploring fingers had found a lump under her ear. She was trying to see it in a mirror
behind the counter with out letting the truck driver know, and so she pretended to push
a bit of hair to neatness. The truck driver said, "They was a big dance in Shawnee. I
heard somebody got killed or somepin. You h ear anything?" "No," said the waitress,
and she lovingly fingered the lump under her ear.
Outside, the seated man stood up and looked over the cowl of the truck and watched
the restaurant for a moment. Then he sett led back on the running board, pulled a sack
of tobacco and a book of papers from his side pocket. He rolled his cigarette slowly
and perfectly, studied it, smoothed it. At last he lighted it a nd pushed the burning
match into the dust at his feet. The sun cut into the shade of the truck as noon
approached.
In the restaurant the truck driver paid his bill and put his two nickels' change in a
slot machine. The whirling cylinders gave him no score. "They fix 'em so you can't win
nothing," he said to the waitress.
And she replied, "Guy took th e jackpot not two hours ago. Three-eighty he got.
How soon you gonna be back by?"