Nothing to Lose

courteous little nod, full of dignity, and the corners of her mouth softened like the beginnings of a smile. Then she turned back and went still again.
    The waitress came straight back to Reacher and he asked for coffee. The waitress whispered, “Her check is going to be nine-fifty. Yours will be a dollar and a half.” Reacher peeled a ten and three ones off the roll in his pocket and slid them across the table. The waitress picked them up and thanked him for the tip and asked, “So when were you broke and hungry?”
    “Never,” Reacher said. “My whole life I got three squares a day from the army and since then I’ve always had money in my pocket.”
    “So you made that up just to make her feel better?”
    “Sometimes people need convincing.”
    “You’re a nice guy,” the waitress said.
    “Not everyone agrees with that.”
    “But some do.”
    “Do they?”
    “I hear things.”
    “What things?”
    But the girl just smiled at him and walked away.

    From a safe distance Reacher watched the Hispanic girl eat a tuna melt sandwich and drink a chocolate milk shake. Good choices, nutritionally. Excellent value for his money. Protein, fats, carbs, some sugar. If she ate like that every day she would weigh two hundred pounds before she was thirty, but in dire need on the road it was wise to load up. After she was finished she dabbed her lips with her napkin and pushed her plate and her glass away and then sat there, just as quiet and still as before. The clock in Reacher’s head hit midnight and the clock on the diner’s wall followed it a minute later. The old guy in the seed cap crept out with a creaking arthritic gait and the tractor salesman gathered his paperwork together and called for another cup of coffee.
    The Hispanic girl stayed put. Reacher had seen plenty of people doing what she was doing, in cafés and diners near bus depots and railroad stations. She was staying warm, saving energy, passing time. She was enduring. He watched her profile and figured she was a lot closer to Zeno’s ideal than he was. The unquestioning acceptance of destinies. She looked infinitely composed and patient.
    The tractor salesman drained his final cup and gathered his stuff and left. The waitress backed away to a corner and picked up a paperback book. Reacher curled his fist around his mug to keep it warm.
    The Hispanic girl stayed put.
    Then she moved. She shifted sideways on her vinyl bench and stood up all in one smooth, delicate motion. She was extremely petite. Not more than five-nothing, not more than ninety-some pounds. Below the T-shirt she was wearing jeans and cheap shoes. She stood still and faced the door and then she turned toward Reacher’s booth. There was nothing in her face. Just fear and shyness and loneliness. She came to some kind of a decision and stepped forward and stood off about a yard and said, “You can talk to me if you really want to.”
    Reacher shook his head. “I meant what I said.”
    “Thank you for my dinner.” Her voice matched her physique. It was small and delicate. It was lightly accented, but English was probably her primary language. She was from southern California for sure. The Padres were probably her home team.
    Reacher asked, “You OK for breakfast tomorrow?”
    She was still for a moment while she fought her pride and then she shook her head.
    Reacher asked, “Lunch? Dinner tomorrow?”
    She shook her head.
    “You OK at the motel?”
    “That’s why. I paid for three nights. It took all my money.”
    “You have to eat.”
    The girl said nothing. Reacher thought, Ten bucks a meal is thirty bucks a day, three days makes ninety, plus ten for contingencies or phone calls makes a hundred. He peeled five ATM-fresh twenties off his roll and fanned them on the table. The girl said, “I can’t take your money. I couldn’t pay it back.”
    “Pay it forward instead.”
    The girl said nothing.
    “You know what pay it forward means?”
    “I’m not sure.”
    “It means years from now you’ll be in a diner somewhere and you’ll see someone who needs a break. So you’ll help them out.”
    The girl nodded.
    “I could do that,” she said.
    “So take the money.”
    She stepped closer and picked up the bills.
    “Thank you,” she said.
    “Don’t thank me. Thank whoever helped me way back. And whoever helped him before that. And so on.”
    “Have you ever been to Despair?”
    “Four times in the last two days.”
    “Did you see anyone there?”
    “I saw lots