The Northwest times. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1947-1955, 1947-04-08
AShOrt Story
SKIPPING MILLIONS
By John Okada


Gle in the window. but 1 was un
aware that the man outside wa
Mr. Muellerhoffcr or that anyon,
was outside at all. To be entirely
truthful. was. at the time. so tho.
roughly negligent of my duties a
the store-having been engaged al
morning in a fascinating move
about a fascinating woman-that
I had long ago lost track of the
numhor OF customers who had walk
ed out on account of my unwilling
ness to rush out and wait upon
them with ain eager smile as the
red-lettered sign OIL the wall had
led them to believe. Even Mr.
Muellerhoffer. or rather, the man
outside, for he had not as yet en-
tered and introduced himself
would have gone unnoticed had not
an overwhelming sense of being
watched crept over me as pursued
the printed pages of the aforemen-
toned fascinating book.
Attempting to ignore the strange
feeling, I mustered forth my max
imum powers of concentration
pushed my nose closer to the book
and read on. wasn't very success
full. however, for the clawing sem
sat;on persisted and became irri-
tatingly worse. BY the time it got
to the point where I felt as if
giant augurs were boring holes in
to my head, I didn't much care
whether or not the fellow in the
book won for collars on the pin
ball machine so that he could court
his gal to the plumbers ball. ]
closed the book indifferently, SHOW
eti it aside ard. still leaning on the
counter, looked up.
A little man was peering in
the doorway, directly at me. AS
soon as / glanced up, however.
he hurriedly back-skipped out
and busted himself with the in
spection Of something in the win
dow. Ordinarily, I would have
Immediately let such an occur
ence pass, but the old gentleman,
somehow, seemed to demand fur
ther study. I skirted around the
counter and ventured closer to
the window.
The little man had his wrinkled
dark face so close to the huge plate
glass that I was fearful lest he
Should soil it with the blunt tip OF
his nose. With precision undoubt-
eddy developed through long prac-
tice, however, he withheld his nos
trils from contracting the glass, but
he .breathed freely on it. The re-
suit was rather humorous. The in
evitable blot OF fog formed quickly
on the pane and soon. found my
self regarding stiff, black hon.
boHg supported, apparently, by nc
other means than by a pair of sill
ver.rimmed glasses through which
gazed solemn, Studious eyes. His
ears were partially visible and also
suspended in air and below the
blank space was clearly visible his
frail body encased in q tight suit OF
black which con;rasted sharply with
the large, firm collar of his shirt
and a heavily knotted pink tie.
laughed and, owing to my coarse
nature, rather more loudly than
the occasion warranted.
The little man heard me for I
saw his eyes dart glaringly at me
for just a second. Instantly, how
ever, he had fixed his gaze again
on the object in the window and
continued his inspection Of IL I'M
mindful of my presence or of the
fact that the greatest portion of
his kindly face was INSTRUCTED
to my view.
Soon, the humor of the specta-
Gle confronting me trickled into a
more serious vein as I became more
attracted by his intent study of the
OBJECT in the window. Just as I was
about to hazard going closer in Or
der to state my curiosity as to
what was of such binding interest
to the strange gentlemen, he skip
ped-he really didn't skip, but the
manner in which he walked rapid
ly with short. jerky steps made it
appear as if he was skipping-over
to the doorway and, jutting his
face forward with a swift movement
of his neck, stared at me- I stared
back. too dumbfounded to greet him
heartily as my employer had in
structed me to do whenever GUS
toner entered the premises. firing,
obviously, Of the stupid grin which
had forced onto my countenance.
the little man seemingly decided to
speak for he opened his mouth. 1t
remained open for what seemed
considerable length of time with
out emitting the faintest sound. A
look of doubt crept into his eyes,
and slowly continued to spread I'M
Til his whole face reflected the ire
mendous gravity of whatever prob
lem his mind was graphing with
at the moment. He clamped his