"Come here" he says to me..."Look at this". The owner's reading the newspaper.
He's reading the obituaries.
"Do you know him?"
I don't.
"He owns..." and here he lists off a list of expensive properties in downtown Calgary.
"He's dead. No children, no wife, no family....what's all his money going to do for him now?"
"What did he die of" I ask. "He seems awfully young".
He doesn't know. But that's not the point, the point is that someone rich died, someone richer than him, and they'll leave behind no one to mourn him at his grave. And somehow that satisfies him.
***
They talk about S********, the manageress who up and quit one night. No one knows exactly what she's up to. One thing for certain, it's no good. Nobody knows what's become of her, yet they still feel free to speculate, she went up north with her boyfriend, she's gone back to school, only thing they "know" for sure is that she's probably broke and that boyfriend of hers, he's no good.
***
Franco, he's talking about J. J. left to get a different job, nearer to home, better hours, and, hopefully, better money. I wished him the best. Our restaurant wasn't really for him.
But Franco, he doesn't like J. Doesn't like him because he left us to go and get a better job, exactly as Franco would do were he in the same position, and he hates him for it. So Franco, he's telling me that he's heard that J. has already lost his job, that so and so had talked to so and so and said this and that J. didn't get the job, and isn't he going to be sad he left now.... he's delighted and getting excited at the prospect. He's becoming his Pa.