Page 166 - Where the Dream Ends ebook

Marc Erdrich

thought. He needs to know I’m here for him, that I won’t
abandon him, that I’ll get him through this, no matter what.

“Listen to me,” Harry said. “You’re not going to kill your-
self.”

“Okay, then you do it for me,” Ed said, suddenly lifting
himself up. The abruptness of the suggestion surprised them
both.

“You really are crazy?” Harry stammered. He was sorry he
said it. It was a phrase his mother had always employed against
her children, and Harry brought it with him into his first mar-
riage, using it against his wife as if the words didn’t carry any
real meaning. Harry promised himself that he would banish
that phrase from his vocabulary, and here he was using it at the
worst of times, but perhaps when it was most real.

“You would just be helping to make it easier,” Ed said, as if
his death was already a fait accompli.

“Okay, look, this is nuts,” Harry said, standing. He felt his
anger growing. “You want to be dead, all right I’ll kill you,” he
said, pointing the gun at Ed. Harry looked menacing, and he
was yelling. Even Ed was startled by the suddenness of Harry’s
actions and it was without thinking that he pushed the nozzle
of the gun away.

It wasn’t meant for the gun to go off. It wasn’t the way
Harry planned it. He just wanted to scare Ed, teach him a
lesson. He thought the safety clip was on, that’s what Ed said.
What did he know? A shot rang out, and the next thing Harry
knew Ed was slumped on the floor. Harry stood, gun in hand,
in a state of shock.

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