Chapters 36-43 Summary

Henry works in a bicycle shop and spends his lunch hour sleeping beneath the hanging stock, fight down the fear of being crushed. The manager's secretary, Carmen, is blonde and beautiful, and Henry gets her into a boxcar for sex. The system makes it impossible to pass the buck on errors, so everyone assumes they will soon be fired. Hector Gonzalves, the petty thief George ("Alabam") Fellows, and Henry hit it off, although Henry kisses Hector's beautiful Mexican wife, and Alabam has a nasty habit, when drunk, of attacking Henry, who always pounds him. The somber, red-faced manager, Mr. Hansen, once asks Henry about his coworkers' intelligence and rumors that Alabam steals. When Hansen gives Henry a $10 a week raise, Henry realizes they are in the thefts together.

Henry meets Jan at a lunch counter and moves in with her in...