Page 158 - Where the Dream Ends ebook

Marc Erdrich

The house was in a pleasant neighborhood with old oak
trees lining the curb and wide front yards, looking just like the
upscale neighborhoods in scores of college towns around the
country. It gave Harry the creeps. It was too quiet, especially
for Ed who was accustomed to the noise and excitement of the
city. Here he could wallow in his depression.

Harry first found out about Ed’s depression during a period
when he was staying overnight once a week at Ed’s apartment
in the city. Ed had just broken up with his girlfriend of seven
years. In the beginning, Harry thought it would do Ed good
to have him around once a week. They could hang out togeth-
er, have some fun. Wrong.

It was subtle at first. Little things that never bothered Ed
in the past, began to disturb him: Harry leaving a bar of wet
soap in the bathtub; Harry using a chair pillow as a bed pillow;
Harry not returning a CD to its proper place. In the beginning,
Harry just figured Ed was feeling down from the separation.
Then he noticed Ed was taking more and more time off from
work. Not that he ever took his job that seriously, but this was
different. This was days at a time. And sometimes he wouldn’t
do anything with his time off. He would sleep most of the
day. On the nights Harry slept over, he looked disheveled, and
he spent endless hours in his living room, dressed in pajamas
listening to Wagnerian operas, a sure sign of depression if Har-
ry ever saw one. The only time he ever went out during that
period, Harry recalled, was to see successive performances of
The Ring Cycle at the Met.

One night when Harry was staying over, they had it out.
Ed said he didn’t think Harry should stay overnight any more.
It was turning his life upside down, he said. Harry couldn’t

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