CHAPTER 13The mindless night was alive, groping and sentient. It seeped through the kitchen window, dimming the single electric bulb suspended from the ceiling. Mildred knew that when the light was gone, when the darkness was complete, she would go, too. Not bravely, not with a gallant gesture. The night would simply take her over. She would cease to be.
Someone opened the front door of the cafe. “Anybody here?” a man’s voice called. She got up slowly, went to the service panel remembering that she had not locked the door.
“Sorry. Closed for the night.” She looked through the service panel at the man who had come in.
He was dressed in working clothes: high laced boots and a yellow metal helmet. The helmet was shaped like those worn in the First World War. He turned in the direction of h
