No Longer Human ( PDFDrive )

99
Antiques," was the only impressive thing about the
place. The shop itself was a long, narrow affair, the
dusty interior of which contained nothing but shelf
after shelf of useless junk. Needless to say, Flatfish did
not depend for a living on the sale of this rubbish;
he apparently made his money by performing such
services as transferring possession of the secret
property of one client to another—to avoid taxes.
Flatfish almost never waited in the shop. Usually he
set out early in the morning in a great hurry, his face
set in a scowl, leaving a boy of seventeen to look after
the shop in his absence. Whenever this boy had nothing
better to do, he used to play catch in the street
with the children of the neighborhood. He seemed to
consider the parasite living on the second floor a
simpleton if not an outright lunatic. He used even to
address me lectures in the manner of an older and
wiser head. Never having been able to argue with
anybody, I submissively listened to his words, a
weary though admiring expression on my face. I
seemed to recall having heard long ago from the J£
people at home gossip to the effect that this clerk was ~. V (*-"
an illegitimate son of Flatfish, though the two of ^
them never addressed each other as father and son.
There must have been some reason for this and for
Flatfish's having remained a bachelor, but I am
congenitally unable to take much interest in other