At ten minutes before noon, Joe arrived at Burger World. He went to the Employee Dressing Room, wrestled his uniform from one of the lockers there, and quickly slipped it on. When he finally punched his timecard in the slot under the clock, it was exactly noon.
Immediately, he was again swept up in his daily routine. Orders for hamburgers and various meals accumulated like tickertape at the counter, and he was soon hustling busily around the kitchen trying to fill them. The grill grew a skin of sizzling meat, the deep fryer popped and hissed with the music of tormented French fries and onion rings. All thoughts of Shelly were forcibly shoved to the back of his mind, all distracting memories were drowned in the syncopated, insistent rhythm of work.
After a little while, Mr. Stevens am
