The Accident

Westbury Hotel, San Francisco, 1974: Clark, the new assistant manager, was a jerk. Everyone agreed. So it was real annoying that he was now the assistant manager. He seemed especially hard-nosed and tactless at first, but maybe he was nervous.

After a while, we got used to him, but when he came in on crutches with his leg in a cast, nobody was real sorry. We watched him hobble around for a while, and then finally I had to ask.

“Clark,” I said, “What happened?” He looked up into the air, and winced at the question.

“I got hit by a car,” he said.

“Why did you walk out in front of the car?”

“Well,” he said, “the light was green.”