Deportation At Breakfast Short Story

The story “Deportation at Breakfast” opens with a man, who we never learn the name of, entering a small restaurant early in the morning. He is new to this place called Clara’s and notices that only two tables are occupied. He sits at the counter and orders an omelet from the only person who seems to be working who is a man named Javier. While Javier is making the food, there are some policemen who come in and arrest him and take him out to their car. The man’s food is still on the grill so they start to burn. He looks and calls for another employee, but sees none and the only other people in the building do not seem to have noticed Javier’s arrest. He decides to finish cooking his own breakfast and while he is doing this a couple of the people from one of the tables comes to the counter to pay. The man asks what they had and they are surprised that he does not remember their order so they do not even realize that it is not the same person they ordered from originally. Once they have paid, he goes back to finishing cooking his food and is about to sit down to eat when a group of six new people come in. They ask if they can put together some tables and order six

None of the people at the tables even realized that the man taking their money was not the same man who took their orders. They did not even acknowledge the police coming in and arresting Javier. The man who ends up taking their money and working the restaurant for the rest of the day never wonders about how this will affect Javier’s life. He never thinks about whether Javier had a family that was depending on the money from that job or not. He is simply concerned about getting his food and eating. He only does something for others when directly confronted by another person. Likewise, these other people are too concerned with their own lives to notice what has happened to