Running the Light by Sam Tallent

Author:Sam Tallent [Tallent, Sam]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Too Big To Fail Press
Published: 2020-08-22T00:00:00+00:00

“So you’re a God guy now?”

​“I don’t know. I think about it. What’s next and all that.”

​“It’s all dirt, baby.”

​“I hope there’s more.”

​“That’s the safer bet. It’s all house money.”

​“But if He knows we’re hedging, why would He honor the slip?

“You’re getting heavy in your old age. And not just in the middle.”

​“I think I’ve been reading too much.”

​Billy Ray put out his cigarette and finished his whiskey. “I better get out there.” He stood up and repeated the ritual of smoothing his hair. He adjusted his shirt in the mirror, cinched his bolo. He wished his nostrils worked. “Don’t think too hard while I’m gone.”

​“I’m going to watch you.”

​Billy Ray opened the door. “Watch and learn.”

“See you on the other side.”

​Billy Ray took his position behind the curtain and rolled his neck in slow circles. He listened to the crowd. The emcee was doing well. He talked fast, so fast he stepped on his laughs, but it was a purposeful pace. He wasn’t rushing to dodge silence, he was throttling up. The crowd reacted to his punchlines but instead of waiting for them to quit laughing, he just hit them again, building momentum, pushing the tempo, increasing the fervor. It was like building a campfire: to maximize the flame, you have to arrange the sticks just so. Billy Ray could feel it: they were about to burn.

​“...and I told her,” the emcee said, “‘No, that’s not a clover hitch –and I’m not a Boy Scout either.’” Billy Ray didn’t hear the set-up but by the way the kid delivered the line, he knew this was his closer, and the crowd concurred: applause, laughter, riot.

​It was time.

​Adrenaline flooded his blood. Clear purpose drove the haze from his head and his spine went bolt straight. His focus crystallized, taking on weight, becoming a brandishable thing. The only sound to ever exist was the emcee’s voice. “Who’s ready for a comedy show?” Billy Ray cracked his knuckles. He was an instrument, a blunt object. “We have a real good one for you tonight. Norm MacDonald is here, y’all. Let him hear it. But before that, we have a few special guests. I’m really excited about this first guy. He’s a bonafide legend. He’s an old friend of Norm’s who just so happened to be in town, so Norm told him to come down. He’s a little banged up. He was in a car accident last night in Pueblo, but we all know how they drive down there: drunk.” Billy Ray was lightning, he was time itself. “You might have seen him on Letterman or he appeared on a little show called The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson twelve times. Maybe you saw his hour special on HBO. Ladies and gentlemen, we’re lucky to have this guy.” Now. “Please give a big Comedy Works welcome to Billy Ray Schafer!”

​Now now now.

​He floated through the curtain on skates of light. His legs ended at his knees. It felt like he was inside a memory.

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