It was a week before Morio spoke again. "Where am I? I dreamt I was in Japan with my mother."

"You're in a hospital, Papa," she told him. "remember someone hit you in the head with a pistol?"

Mrs. Tamura definitely saw a muscle twitch in his face. "Oh. I remember a boy... a man... came in and bought doughnuts. One half-dozen. He paid me and as I was going back into the kitchen I felt something hit me. That's all I can remember. How much money did he take?"

"All that I left in the cash register before I went home. About $6 in dollar bills, nickels and dimes."

"Strange... he looked like such a nice boy. He talked softly. I gave him two extra doughnuts because I had only two left. He told me he just wanted six and I told him that the extra two were free. He said "Thank you." By the way, when can I leave here? I have to order some flour, in case we have a shipping strike later in the month."

"We already had a shipping strike, Papa, and it's been settled so don't worry about the strike."