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So it turned out that I did spend proo, just not quite as I’d dreaainst her rolled-up carpet with her ratty blanket draped over ht and sitting still in the dark as the cicadas hummed above and around me

Maybe she had sat here in the cacophonous darkness and felt some kind of desperation take her over, and ht of death I could io picking these books up at various garage sales, buying every travel guide she could get her hands on for a quarter or less And then co here--even before she disappeared--to read the books away fro to decide on destinations Yes She would stay on the road and in hiding, a balloon floating through the sky, eating up hundreds of miles a day with the help of a perpetual tailwind And in this iive ether an itinerary? Maybe Of course I was nowhere near an itinerary Judging from the books, she could be in Jaun to look

22

In my dream, her head was on my shoulder as I lay on my back, only the corner of carpet between us and the concrete floor Her ar

God helpwith girls, and just sleeping with thes beforeon the unrolled carpet It was 3:18 AM Ben was calling

"Good , and I could tell right away that noas not the tiined about Margo I could damn near smell the booze on his breath That one word, in the way it was shouted, containedBen had ever said towell?"

"YESSSS! Quentin Jacobsen! The Q! Aot distant then but I could still hear him "Everybody, hey, shut up, hold on, shut up--QUENTIN! JACOBSEN! IS INSIDE MY PHONE!" There was a cheer then, and Ben’s voice returned "Yes, Quentin! Yes! Bro, you have got to come over here"

"Where is here?" I asked

"Becca’s! Do you knohere it is?"

As it happened, I knew precisely where it was I’d been in her baseht, Ben And I’ht now!"

"Ben, there areon," I answered

"DESIGNATED DRIVER!"

"What?"

"You’re nated! I love that you answered! That’s so awesoet ht there?" I asked

"NOOOO! Booooo Booo on Quentin Hey, everybody! Boooo Quentin!" And then I was booed "Everybody’s drunk Ben drunk Lacey drunk Radar drunk Nobody drive Honated Driver! YESSSS!"

I took a long breath If Margo were going to show up, she would have showed up by three "I’ll be there in half an hour"

"YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YESSSSSS!!!! YES! YES!"

Ben was stillup the phone I lay there for a et up, and then I did Still half asleep, I crawled through Troll Holes past the library and into the office, then pulled open the back door and got into the ton’s subdivision just before four There were dozens of cars parked along both sides of Becca’s street, and I knew there would be more people inside, since many of them had been dropped off via limo I found a spot a couple cars away frorade, I once drank a bottle of pink "wine" at a band party It tasted as bad going down as it did co up It was Ben who sat with me in Cassie Hiney’s Winnie-the-Pooh–themed bathroo of Eeyore I think the experience soured both of us on alcoholic pursuits Until tonight, anyway

Now, I knew Ben was going to be drunk I’d heard him on the phone No sober person says "yes" that many times percigarettes on Becca’s front lawn and opened the door to her house, I did not expect to see Jase Worthington and two other baseball players holding a tuxedo-clad Ben upside down above a keg of beer The spout of the beer keg was in Ben’s mouth, and the entire roo in unison, "Eighteen, nineteen, twenty," and for aBut no, as he sucked on that beer spout like it was mother’s milk, little trickles of beer spilled fro "Twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five," the people shouted, and you could hear their enthusias place

It all see It all see their paper fun I h the croard Ben, and was surprised to happen across Radar and Angela

"What the hell is this?" I asked

Radar paused fronated Driver coht?"

"Good question," Angela shouted to hed She looked alood question!" Radar said, holding a red plastic cup full of beer in each hand

"They’re both his," Angela explained to nated driver?" I asked

"They wanted you," she said "Thought it would get you here" I rolled my eyes She rolled hers back, sy toward Radar, as holding both beers over his head, joining in the counting Everybody seemed so proud of the fact that they could count