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Anders notes that he had never been impressed with the mural on the bank’s ceiling. He had always glanced at it whenever he visited the bank but he had never consciously paid attention to what was being depicted. However, Anders is now forced to study and contemplate the mural, given the robber’s pistol shoved upward into his chin. Anders begins to internally criticize the mural on the bank's ceiling, which he feels is a clichéd representation of moments from Greek mythology. He feels that the painter treated the mural with a “gravity” that it did not deserve and notes that the painter simply employed the same handful of artistic tricks over and over again to create the different scenes. He is particularly scornful of a representation of Zeus and Europa in bull form. He finds Europa’s sensuality crude and Zeus’s predatory gaze cartoonish, and he imagines a speech bubble saying “hubba hubba” over Zeus’s head. Anders is amused by his own criticism of the ugly mural. He is evidently obvious in his amusement; the robber asks Anders what he finds “so funny” about his dangerous situation, then threatens Anders and tells him to take his threats seriously or he will be “history.” To confirm that Anders understands the danger that he is in, he asks, “Capiche?” Anders cannot stop himself from laughing. He covers his mouth with his hands to stifle his laughter, but he cannot stop himself from mocking the robber’s clichéd use of the word capiche. Enraged, the robber takes his pistol and shoots Anders in the head.
The bullet travels through Anders's brain and time slows down while it does so. The narrator then lists a series of key events from Anders’s life that he notably does not remember or reflect on in his final moments. Some examples include his memories of his first lover, being moved while listening to his professor recite Aeschylus in Greek, hearing about his parents’ broken marriage, and watching a woman commit suicide by jumping from a tall building.
The only memory that Anders recalls after being shot is a baseball game that he played as a child. He remembers how his friend Coyle had a cousin visiting from out of town who asked to play. Coyle’s cousin said that he wanted to play shortstop because it is “the best position they is.” Anders recalls being struck by Coyle’s cousin’s confident disregard for the conventions of grammar, something he found “unexpect[ed]” and “music[al].” Anders recalls how he spent the rest of the game repeating the phrase “they is” to himself over and over, and that the phrase never lost its charm. The story ends with Anders suspended in the space between life and death as he repeats the phrase “they is” to himself over and over.
