Unnamed Mourners at Red's Funeral

"Mourners" is a euphemism. Two of the people in attendance at Red's funeral - "middle-aged women" (246) - are described "weeping quietly," but most seem mainly interested in the free alcohol Gene is providing and in getting the flowers off the crap table so that gambling can resume. They include men in both "dark suits" and "the light, bright shades of spring," and women, the "younger ones" wearing "bright colors" and the older ones "in sober gray and black and navy blue, and glittering with diamonds" (243). These last remind the narrator, with his habit of juxtaposing genteel and sordid worlds, of "housewives on a Sunday afternoon excursion" (243). This group also includes the person referred to as "the second man," who wants the orchestra to play jazz (244), and the "four men" who attack the club's bouncer when he tries to eject the "woman in red" (247-48).