Summary

The story opens with Gruner having lost his ticket and the ticket man refusing to sell him a new one. He tries to reason with the man, finding other options to pay for his ticket, but he sees the ticket man motion for the train to pass because no one has bought a ticket. Gruner wishes to go to the capital, and is frustrated by his incapacity to purchase a ticket. While Gruner is sitting on a bench in the station, the man from the ticket window brings him a “mug full of steaming liquid” (85). He approaches the ticket window to ask when the next train is, but is welcomed with the window in his face. He spends the rest of the day waiting on the bench until a woman invites him into the waiting room where food is waiting on a...