Coalinga 1/2 Way

He turns back into his room and snaps the light on. He goes to the phone. He has the number memorized. He's called this number maybe a million times from every conceivable dark corner over the past two years. He's gripped phones in every possible emotional state, awaiting the voice on the other end. The voice he's become convinced he can't live without. The voice he's given everything up for.

"Hello," the voice says, and he can't believe it's so simple.

"It's me," he says. She laughs and he feels a rush of white excitement like falling high from a rope swing into icy water.

"Where are you?" she giggles.

"I'm here. I'm right here."

"In town?"

"Yeah. I'm at the Tropicana."

"The Tropicana!" she squeals. "What're you doing there?"

"I've left."

"What?" she says, and stops laughing.

"I've left."

"Not -- Your wife you mean?"

"Yeah."

"You told her?"

"Yeah. I did. I told her." She laughs again but it's different now. It has a guarded edge to it.

"Well --" she says. "So she knows all about it then?"

"Yeah. She does."

"What'd you tell her?"

"I told her I was leaving."

"When did this happen?"

"Today," he says. "Just today. I drove all the way down here."

"That's crazy!" she says, and laughs again, but this time it hardly sounds like a laugh at all. It sounds worried.

"Can you come over?" he says. "I need to see you."

"What? Now, you mean? Right now?"

"Yeah. Come on over. I'm in number seventeen."

"Well, I can't right now. There's -- I just can't."

"Why not?" he says.

"I'm -- well, actually I was just getting ready to leave."

"Where are you going?"

"Indiana. David's got a new commission out there."

"David?" he says.

"Yes. It just came up. He's waiting for me."

"Waiting for you where?"

"In Indiana. I just told you."

"You're flying out to Indiana to meet David?"

"Yes. I was just going out the door when the phone rang." He hears the loud splash of the fat man hitting the pool outside. Then nothing. A distant siren. "Hello," she says. "Are you still there?"

"Where am I supposed to go?" he says.

Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf fromGreat Dream of Heaven: Stories by Sam Shepard, to be published in October. Copyright © 2002 by Sam Shepard.