In what has become a Thursday tradition, Ray closes the barbershop at 3:30pm, jumps on the subway, and heads up to Brooklyn. He purchases a bag of groceries and walks to his mother’s house in East Flatbush.
As usual, he can smell the corned beef and cabbage before he gets to the front door. He runs in to Horace Baker (a well-dressed, slightly overweight, middle-aged man who has been his mother’s neighbor for a number of years), and spends a few minutes exchanging pleasantries.
Ray’s mother dotes over her son, cooking a fabulous dinner and treating him like a king. He tends to feel guilty because he knows that she is lonely, but she never lets it show while Ray’s there. Even though it means he’ll have to be up at the crack of dawn to get back to Manhattan, Ray agrees to spend the night.
As he plops himself down in a comfy arm chair, Ray is thankful that he’s remembered his book. After his mother has gone to sleep, Ray spends a few hours reading, periodically taking a sip from his flask. After a while, he begins to nod off…
…Ray awakens with a start. What time is it? Was that a scream? As if in answer, he hears another scream from the home of Horace Baker…
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