The narrator enters the liquor store, where he finds that the owner has fallen asleep again. The narrator tells the other employees that he is sorry that he did not wake up sooner. He tells them that the man who gave him the money is a good person, and that he hopes they will stop wasting their time thinking stupid things about him. He asks them if they know what it is like to be poor, and they tell him that they do. He wants to know why they didn't tell him sooner, and the narrator tells him that it is because they are afraid of what his parents will think of him if he does not speak up for himself