THE DYING BUSINESS

We ate a huge lunch on the patio by the swimming pool; we went in and out of the pool between courses, and when we finished the lunch, we kept drinking beer and cooling off in the pool. We had the place pratically to ourselves; the waiters and the bartender kept looking at us - they must have thought we were crazy, or from another planet.
'WHERE ARE ALL THE PEOPLE?' Owen asked the bartender.
'We don't do a lot of business this time of year,' the bartender sayd. 'What business are you in?' he asked Owen.
'I'M IN THE DYING BUSINESS,' sayd Owen Meany. Then we sat in the pool, laughing about how the dying business was not a seasonal thing.
(John Irving | A Prayer For Owen Meany)