A regular customer at a barber shop, the narrator walks in and sees the barber has a customer already, a white sergeant. The barber’s wife sits in a wicker chair by the rattan table and looks out the window. The narrator, like the sergeant and the barber, had served in the war. As he looks out the window, he notes how everything is visible from the window, including the heavy motor convoys that carry war supplies and the police cars with wailing sirens. The barbershop, in contrast, seems very isolated from the rest of this busy world. The barber continues to sweep the hair from the sergeant’s neck, while the narrator thumbs through a magazine, awaiting his turn. The sergeant looks up at the barber during conversation and tells him that he does not favor how African Americans and whites are allowed next to each other on buses. The narrator stiffens at the sergeant’s racist speech and recalls speaking to his fellow African American friend, Brownie, who was leaving for the army. In present time, the sergeant mentions how seeing black men by white women bothers him the most. The barber seems very disturbed and cuts the conversation short by calling the narrator to the chair. The narrator tells how he recalls his own military training in Texas. Suddenly, to the narrator’s surprise, Brownie himself walks in the barber shop and greets the narrator. As he was walking out, the sergeant turns back around and lashes out at Brownie for speaking to the white narrator. Brownie flashes back a response and tells the story of how he was released from the army due to a Jim Crow bus incident, but the sergeant shows little sympathy. Brownie runs at the door with rage, fighting the urge to punch the sergeant. The narrator calms him down and Brownie exits the shop.