Page 120 - Where the Dream Ends ebook

Marc Erdrich

Joey handed him the ticket.

“Hi. Yeah, go ahead,” Larry said, cupping the phone to
his ear with his shoulder. Uh huh, uh huh, yeah, yeah… wait,
could you do me a favor, I’m having trouble hearing you with
this ear.” He put the pencil and the ticket on the counter and
transferred the receiver to the other ear. Could you run that by
me again?”

“Come on,” Joey said, exasperated.

“You want to do it?” Larry said, handing the phone to Joey.

“No, no, you do it,” Joey ordered, impatient.

“One more time, please,” Larry said, getting ready to write.
Okay, yeah, yeah, okay, uh huh, uh huh, right. Yeah. Got ‘em.
Thanks. Thanks a lot.” He hung up the phone.

“Well?” Joey asked. “What’s the story?”

Larry stared at the piece of paper. “I think I have to call
them back,” he said.

“Why?” Joey asked.

“Because I circled all seven numbers.”

For a fleeting moment, as the two men stared at each oth-
er, a hole dropped open in the universe and Larry and Joey
fell through. For a few seconds, they moved into that place
people visit week after week on TV reruns of the “Twilight
Zone”, a place where nothing and everything exist side by side,
where fear and joy cross paths. In that brief moment, Larry
and Joey experienced it all: the jubilation, the sadness, the ups

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