Biological West was dark on this day. No one hung around. All of Cannery Row seemed rather glum, in fact, from Mack's gang of the Palace Flophouse to the Bear Flag, which Dora had closed down for the time. Even Darling, the pointer bitch of the Flophouse seemed to know of the occasion: Doc was gone. His favorite thing had been truth, and for the time being, that was all there was. No one dared to deny he had a peaceful death. It would be some time till a drunken party would start scandalous rumors. For now, people were fine with letting him be.

With the lack of business at the Bear Flag, the locals, along with a few of the folks from "up on the hill," had crowded into Lee Chong's little grocery. He did not object to this. No one was making noise; some paid in cash; even if this were not so, he would not have cared. Doc was a good man, and had rendered Lee a life's supply of services, as he had to everyone on the Row. The door to the grocery swung open, and Mack entered. Lee hardly looked up. It was Mack who had first heard the news, or so everyone thought. Doc had no family. Mack and his boys wanted to know if he'd be interested in them catching a few hundred frogs…he would not be able to answer their question. Even with his entrance, the stillness remained unbroken. He simply took a beer and, to the Chinaman's great surprise, tossed a coin on the table. In any other time, Lee might have mentally cheered for the first payment he'd ever received from the leader of the Flophouse gang. Without a change of expression, he tucked it away into the cash register.

Mack went back to the Palace Flophouse. Eddie, Hughie, Gay, Hazel, and Jones might as well have not even been there. Darling greeted him appropriately, yet did so in a more melancholy way. She was no longer a puppy, and seemed to know he who had once saved her life was no more. After placing his bottle in the neutral territory of his domain, he set off in the direction of the Bear Flag. Alfred made no move to stop him from entering. For the first time since October of the last year, he entered her office. Phyllis Mae was sitting in there with her, but the two were obviously holding no meeting. Upon Mack's arrival, Phyllis shuffled out. Dora's eyes rose. Somehow, she looked older, and lacked her aura of authority. Mack seemed to start to sit down, only to change his mind and resume standing.

"I been thinkin'…" he started.

"I'm sure."

There was a pause.

"Well, Doc…he got no family."

Dora's authoritive look was starting to return, the first expression anyone had seen since the day before, when news had broke.

"That's probably better for 'im. Look at your boys, an' yerself-what good's family done for y'all? Ah. That ain't what you're getting at, is it?"

"Finely put, Madam…so what I been thinkin' is…well, Doc's gotta have a nice funeral."

"An' you want old Dora to tell you what to do?"

"Yes."

Dora leaned back. This was not the time for serious thinking.

"Well, what about the funeral?"

"It's not been had…we can't just leave his body lyin' there in Western Bi'logical!"

"He's still there?"
"No family. So who's to give funeral? None of the folks up on the hill know, I reckon. They didn't like the folks choosin' to live on Cannery when they could afford otherwise."

"I reckons we'll have to give him a funeral ourselves, then."

Mack nodded as a proper man should and found his way out. That Dora was one helluva woman. That's why she was the Madam.