"Coming up." She slapped a mugful at him and he sipped it down.
"Better," he said. "How much?"
"For free," she said. She assumed a Greek accent. "Mr. Padopolous says, America's so good to him this is his chance to say thank you."
"Well, thank Mr. Padopolous for me when he gets back."
He walked out into the dark and bummed a cigarette from the cop. After a deep drag he told him, "I'm a transient. In town by accident."
"You're lucky," the cop said sourly. "I live here."
"Yeah. Well—I mean, is there anything I can do?"
The cop shrugged. "Not much. Help's getting here, lots of it. The army rolled in a hospital and the governor sent a battalion of National Guards. One of them's supposed to show up here and relieve me so I can get some sleep." He yawned tremendously and sat down on the diner steps. "My advice to you, get some sleep and in the morning they'll have something fixed up for you. Maybe those army trucks'll get you where you want to go."
Dick said, "Thanks," and walked off. Well, he'd missed it. Slept right through it.
The cop called after him, "Hey, kid. Not toward River Street. The Guard sent a sound truck around. Unsafe buildings, wide-open warehouses and stores. They're patrolling with guns. Got it?"