Now you can make chili in a pot on the stove in an hour, if you hate Jesus, but the proper way to do it is a slow cook, two hundred degrees all day. Benton can’t leave anything hot at home, though, he’s got a kid, and he can’t have his delicious chili unattended in his cubicle. Plus his wife just died. Anyway, he solves the problem.

One day Morocco collects five bucks from everybody and asks, “how’s it working out?”

Benton straightens with difficulty. “What?”

“The Crock Pot,” says Morocco, pointing headwards, “with the bungee cords?”

“It’s hot,” says Benton.