Page 156 - Where the Dream Ends ebook

Marc Erdrich

would have been happy to include Stu in at least some of their
plans, if only because he was Ed’s brother.

Ed knew that eventually Stu would become his problem.
After Ed’s father died, Harry and a few other friends tried to
talk to Ed about Stu. Was he thinking about what would hap-
pen to him when his mother died? Were any arrangements
being made for his care? They talked about organizations he
could contact, halfway houses where Stu might eventually live.
Ed wouldn’t talk about it. He was arrogant. “It’s no one’s busi-
ness but mine,” he said.

Stu was approaching his fiftieth birthday when his mother
took a turn for the worse. The only reason Harry knew about
it is that he happened to call Ed one day to find out how he
was doing at his new job. They hadn’t seen each other in a few
months and Harry was thinking about driving out to see him.
He could tell there was something the matter as soon as Ed an-
swered the phone. Instead of the usual flippant response, “Ed’s
Pizza”, or something else designed to divert anyone but family
or friends, this time there was barely a greeting.
“What’s up?” Harry asked.

“Nothing much,” Ed said. Harry waited for an additional
response, but it didn’t come. In the past, Ed had shown a dis-
position to bouts of depression, and it was what Harry imme-
diately thought of.

“Something’s going on,” Harry persisted. “What is it?” Re-
luctantly, Ed spilled the details of his mother’s illness. It wasn’t
life-threatening, not yet anyway. But it wasn’t Ed’s mother’s
illness that had Ed depressed.

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