he’s been gone a long time…

yeah…

where do ya think he went to…

don’t know…

said he was goin’ up to the store to get a pack of cigarettes…been a couple of hours now…

guess so…

I’ll betcha he didn’t go up to the store…betcha he went somewhere else…

like where…

anywhere…could’ve gone to the tavern out on Nine Mile Road…might’ve gone to the mall and walked ’round for a spell…went for a drive…out in the country…over by the Ohio line…

worried…

little…

he’s a grown boy…a man…shouldn’t worry so much…not good for ya…

remember that time he took off for California…got as far as Nebraska…knew that car was gonna break down on him…we drove all the way out there to fetch him…you were cursin’ the whole time…cursin’ at him the whole way back too…

he had it comin’…

swore to me that night that one day he was gonna take off and we’d never hear from him again…said we’d never expect it…

uh huh…

you think that’s true…

couldn’t tell ya…

he’s your boy…

yeah…still couldn’t tell ya…I just know this time I ain’t gonna save him…spent enough money on that kid…he wants to take off and try to do it better…he can do that…won’t stand in his way…

you don’t mean that…

hell I don’t…we done our job…up to him now…

he ain’t got a pot to piss in…

neither did I…neither did I…

so if he calls ya in the middle of the night…

he won’t…too proud this time…he’ll sink or swim…that’s on him…done our job…we done our job…

he’ll come back at Christmas time…you wait and see…tell us all ’bout his adventures…where he’s been…what he’s seen…

he ain’t comin’ back…

dont say that…

I’m tellin’ ya he ain’t comin’ back…

where ya reckon he went to…

don’t know…

it’s gettin’late…

yeah…

betcha he went to that tavern out on Nine Mile…

probably did…

ya gonna wait up for him…

nope…

I’ll leave the porch light on…

do that…