Anxious People

Jim interviews the real estate agent by himself and asks her if she recognizes a drawing that the bank robber might have left. It looks like a child’s drawing of a monkey, frog, and elk.

Jack is angry at the way the former hostage interviews are going and throws his coffee cup. Jim feels sympathy for his son but feels powerless to help. The narrator describes the two men as being very different from each other due to being from very different generations, but they are similar in their shared love for Jack’s late mother. Jack and Jim also both love Jack’s sister who’s a heroin addict.

Jim tries to encourage his son by saying that they’re all just doing the best they can, with the hostages and in life more generally, but Jack can’t stop thinking about the man on the bridge.

This chapter is a transcript between Jack and a 20-year-old girl named London who works as a bank teller in the bank that the bank robber tried to rob. London won’t directly answer his questions and is sarcastic instead.