The Song of an Innocent Bystander

John Wayne O'Grady, filled with anger and self-righteousness, enters a Family Value restaurant, pulls out a shotgun, and tells the customers and employees that it is time for Family Value to pay its dues. Among those present is Freda, a nine-year-old girl oblivious to the gunman, who stands at the counter demanding the Wild West sticker that she should have gotten with her Noonburger. Bone steadily builds the intensity of the siege from there. The story is told by Freda in jumps between that day and her life ten years later when she begins to deal with the terror of those thirty-six hours as it resurfaces in returning memories. In her fear and loneliness for her parents who had already exited the restaurant, young Freda finds kindness in O'Grady's manipulation and is willing to be his comrade. He confides in her and allows her to hold his gun.