Sandra K. Friday
Another short, short story, "Deportation at Breakfast"
by Larry Fondation,
is such a
surprise. The protagonist, who tells the story in the first person, walks into a small New York restaurant for breakfast, and by a sequence of events, and because of his positive attitude, finds himself running the restaurant within an hour or so. Once he has ordered his breakfast and is settled at the counter reading his paper, the owner, Javier, "with dark black hair and a mustache and a youthful beard," who is also the cook, and apparently an illegal alien, is suddenly and swiftly spirited away in handcuffs (Thomas, 213). The hungry protagonist must decide whether to sit there and watch his breakfast burn on the griddle or throw on an apron and rescue it. "After some hesitation, I got up from my red swivel stool and went behind the counter. I grabbed an apron . . ." (Thomas, 213). Once he dons the apron, everyone mistakes him as the cook, and not wanting to disappoint customers who have come in for breakfast, he pours coffee and makes toast and scrambles eggs. Referring to six customers who walk in, he says, "I thought of telling them I didn't work there. But perhaps they were hungry." One of his last thoughts is, "Maybe I'll take out a help-wanted ad in the paper tomorrow. I have never been in the restaurant business" (Thomas, 213).
At any point he could have walked away; he could have left his breakfast burning on the griddle and gone off to another restaurant; he could have said to the two women whose money he accepted when they came to the counter to pay their bill, "I don't work here." He could have said to the six folks who came in for breakfast after the owner had been taken away, "I'm sorry, but I am just a customer." I want my students to consider his attitude about himself and how that affects what happens in the story. I want them to think about times they have been "sitting at that counter." I hope they will write about it.