MELVIN hovers behind the cash register, his large, soft body interfering with Krystelle's duties. Watching Spencer's performance appreciatively, he says, "Looks like my pep talk had a positive effect on a certain employee's company loyalty."

"I'm sure he'd take a bullet for LEMCO, now that everybody's calling him Bus Bitch," says Krystelle.

"Yup, no doubt. Pep-talking is a skill I learned at the College of Business. You could have learned it, too, but you weren't paying attention. Too busy flirting with that accounting major who somehow neglected to marry you."

"Did you ever see that episode of Rockford Files where he breaks a guy's face with a roll of nickels?"

Melvin walks off quickly, not forgetting to drop a couple nickels in the fake crystal brandy snifter which Krystelle maintains next to the complimentary Lemmy toothpicks, just in case anybody wants to leave her a tip.

Looking resentful and determined to get her own someday, Krystelle takes the first opportunity to abandon her post and duck out the front door.

SHE SNEAKS across the street, leaping the traffic island in the middle with surprising agility for someone with such a prematurely matronly figure. She dodges SUVs intent on playing chicken with such an irresistible target.

Krystelle's destination is a construction site directly across from Lemuel's, which rings and clatters with the racket of cement mixers, hammers, saws, proletarians, and so forth. The billboard out front offers an artist's prospective view of Dagbert's Family Eatery. It looks about the same as Lemuel's, but with a violet and yellow color scheme, and a different cartoon character logo: Dag the Dinnersaur.

HE IS DEPICTED as a violet stegosaurus who can walk on his hind legs and use his front paws like hands. Instead of reptilian scales along his spine, Dag has a double row of yellow dinner plates, and instead of spikes on his tail, he sports purple forks.

Krystelle heads for a temporary office in an aluminum shack at the periphery of the construction site, upon which a large HELP WANTED sign has been hung.