Chapter 18Joe walked down the street, lost in thought. It was dark already, sometime around eight o'clock, and the air was very cold. It was a damp, chilly evening, and seemed to be getting colder all the time; the sky was full of clouds, gray languid masses which blocked the stars and moon and made the darkness thicker still. On the street, there was hardly any traffic, and few people were on the sidewalks. The city was quiet, dark and empty...like Joe.
Brownstown had always been like this, as far back as Joe could remember. The entire town shut down at five o'clock in the afternoon, completely stopped. All the stores closed at five, except for a handful of all-night convenience stores; all the banks and offices and businesses locked their doors; and everyone went home, raced off to the
