The Dead Zone

“No,” she said.

“Huh?”

“I don't think everybody does have a streak once in a while. It was almost unca

“Did it?”

“Yes.”

Joh

“Little, sad, mousy Lisa?” She smiled. “I know her. She's wandering in clouds of perplexity through my business grammar course.

“She lost her class ring,” Joh

“And you've always been able to do that?”

He laughed and shook his head. “Hardly ever. “The smile slipped a little. “But it was strong tonight, Sarah. I had that Wheel… “He closed his fists softly and looked at them, now frowning. “I had it right here. And it had the strangest goddam associations for me.”

“Like what?”

“Rubber,” he said slowly. “Burning rubber. And cold. And ice. Black ice. Those things were in the back of my mind. God knows why. And a bad feeling. Like to beware.”

She looked at him closely, saying nothing, and his face slowly cleared.

“But it's gone now, whatever it was. Nothing probably.”

“It was five hundred dollars worth of good luck, anyway,” she said. Joh

“I'll call,” he said, and kissed her face gently. “You sure you don't want me to hang around?”

Suddenly she did, but she shook her head “Call me,” she said.

“Period three,” he promised. He went to the door.

“Joh

He turned back.

“I love you, Joh

He blew a kiss. “Feel better,” he said, “and we'll talk.”

She nodded, but it was four-and-a-half years before she talked to Joh

“Do you mind if I sit up front?” Joh

“Nope. Just don't bump your knee on the meter. It's delicate.”

Joh

“Where to?”

“Cleaves Mills,” Joh

“I got to ask you for fare-and-a-half,” the cabbie said. “I don't like to, but I got to come back empty from there.”

Joh

“Fare-and-a-half's okay,” he told the cabbie.

“Just as long's we understand each other,” the cabbie said more expansively. “I got over so quick on account of I had a call at the Riverside and nobody there would own up when I got over there.”

“That so?” Joh

“Yeah, these drunks call and then they change their minds,” the cabbie said. “Damn drunks, I hate em. They call and decide what the hell, they'll have a few more beers. Or they drink up the fare while they're waitin and when I come in and yell “Who wants the cab?” they don't want to own up.

“Yeah,” Joh

That was the luck of the evening, not beating that Wheel. But it was the Wheel his mind kept coming back to, worrying at it. In the dark he could still see it revolving, and in his ears he could hear the slowing ticka-ticka-ticka of the marker bumping over the pins like something heard in an uneasy dream. Found money brings bad luck.

The cabbie turned off onto Route 6, now well-launched into his own monologue.

“So I says, “Blow it outcha you-know-where.” I mean, the kid is a smart-aleck, right? I don't have to take a load of horseshit like that from anyone, including my own boy. I been drivin this cab twenty-six years. I been held up six times. I been in fender-benders without number, although I never had a major crash, for which I thank Mary Mother of Jesus and Saint Christopher and God the Father Almighty, know what I mean? And every week, no matter how thin that week was, I put five bucks away for his college. Ever since he was nothin but a pip squeak suckin a bottle. And what for? So he can come home one fine day and tell me the president of the United States is a pig. Hot damn! The kid probably thinks I'm a pig, although he knows if he ever said it I'd rearrange his teeth for him. So that's today's young generation for you. So I says, “Blow it outcha-you-know. where. "”

“Yeah,” Joh

One thin dime, one tenth of a dollar. Hey-hey-hey.

“What's your game, might I ask?” the cabbie said.

“I teach high school in Cleaves.”

“Oh, yeah? So you know what I mean. What the hell's wrong with these kids, anyway?”

Well, they ate a bad hot dog called Vietnam and it gave them ptomaine. A guy named Lyndon Johnson sold it to them. So they went to this other guy, see, and they said, “Jesus, mister, I'm sick as hell. “And this other guy, his name was Nixon, he said, “I know how to fix that,

Have a few more hot dogs. “And that's what's wrong with the youth of America.

“I don't know,” Joh

“You plan all your life and you do what you can,” the cabbie said, and now there was honest bewilderment in his voice, a bewilderment which would not last much longer because the cabbie was embarked upon the last minute of his life. And Joh

Come on over baby, whole lotta shakin goin on.

“You never want nothing but the best, and the kid comes home with hair down to his asshole and says the president of the United States is a pig. A pig! Sheeyit, I don't…”

“Look out!” Joh

The cabbie had half-turned to face him, his pudgy American Legio

“Jeeesus… -,

There were two cars, one on each side of the white line. They had been dragging, side by side, coming up over the hill, a Mustang and a Dodge Charger. Joh