WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.895 align:middle line:84%
And now I'm going to skip to
the very end of the story.

00:00:02.895 --> 00:00:05.850 align:middle line:90%


00:00:05.850 --> 00:00:07.950 align:middle line:84%
They've not only met
the legendary Gato,

00:00:07.950 --> 00:00:11.130 align:middle line:84%
but they've gone out
to lunch with him.

00:00:11.130 --> 00:00:15.240 align:middle line:84%
"All the time, those smoky blue
eyes ignoring James and Jim B,

00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:17.490 align:middle line:90%
yet measuring Van.

00:00:17.490 --> 00:00:21.570 align:middle line:84%
James Gato did not like at all,
not his obsequious ways, not

00:00:21.570 --> 00:00:23.220 align:middle line:90%
the presumed intimacy.

00:00:23.220 --> 00:00:25.770 align:middle line:84%
James was giving
Gato indigestion.

00:00:25.770 --> 00:00:28.260 align:middle line:90%
Van had seen it happen before.

00:00:28.260 --> 00:00:31.140 align:middle line:84%
And Van saw other
things, flashes of light,

00:00:31.140 --> 00:00:34.380 align:middle line:84%
some from high in the
window of a building, a body

00:00:34.380 --> 00:00:35.940 align:middle line:90%
in the backseat of a car.

00:00:35.940 --> 00:00:39.480 align:middle line:84%
Maybe there were two
bodies, the souls faint.

00:00:39.480 --> 00:00:41.460 align:middle line:84%
It was like watching
an old Mexican movie

00:00:41.460 --> 00:00:44.100 align:middle line:84%
at his nonna's when she had
only the black and white

00:00:44.100 --> 00:00:46.890 align:middle line:84%
and it flickered every time
something exciting happened,

00:00:46.890 --> 00:00:49.860 align:middle line:84%
and so the story was always
shadowy and always jerky

00:00:49.860 --> 00:00:51.570 align:middle line:90%
and always in Spanish.

00:00:51.570 --> 00:00:52.770 align:middle line:90%
Eres mío.

00:00:52.770 --> 00:00:55.260 align:middle line:84%
He had heard these voices
all through group, all

00:00:55.260 --> 00:00:56.460 align:middle line:90%
through lunch.

00:00:56.460 --> 00:00:57.750 align:middle line:90%
Yo te mato.

00:00:57.750 --> 00:01:01.110 align:middle line:84%
Or rather, how to explain he
hadn't heard them exactly,

00:01:01.110 --> 00:01:05.220 align:middle line:84%
not in his ear, except for
cuidado, eh, the same phrase

00:01:05.220 --> 00:01:06.060 align:middle line:90%
as before.

00:01:06.060 --> 00:01:10.200 align:middle line:84%
That was whispered right next
to his ear, definitely external.

00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:12.720 align:middle line:84%
He could feel the
breath of the speaker.

00:01:12.720 --> 00:01:15.330 align:middle line:84%
Sometimes there were voices,
not literally voices,

00:01:15.330 --> 00:01:17.670 align:middle line:84%
but more like phrases
that randomly floated

00:01:17.670 --> 00:01:20.280 align:middle line:84%
through his head,
as in telepathy,

00:01:20.280 --> 00:01:24.180 align:middle line:84%
the aural equivalent
of an opium dream,

00:01:24.180 --> 00:01:26.970 align:middle line:84%
sounds you've never heard
but that are nevertheless

00:01:26.970 --> 00:01:29.580 align:middle line:84%
vivid and real, as vivid
and real as anything

00:01:29.580 --> 00:01:31.260 align:middle line:90%
in your waking life.

00:01:31.260 --> 00:01:35.310 align:middle line:84%
Whereas cuidado, eh, was
uttered, came from outside,

00:01:35.310 --> 00:01:37.200 align:middle line:90%
was maybe his dad.

00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:40.020 align:middle line:84%
After all, the hair had stood
up on the back of his neck

00:01:40.020 --> 00:01:43.530 align:middle line:84%
when Gato asked them to meet
him at the crossroads for lunch.

00:01:43.530 --> 00:01:46.230 align:middle line:84%
Clearly it had been
a mistake to go.

00:01:46.230 --> 00:01:49.440 align:middle line:84%
Yet he had ignored his gut, even
with his father watching over

00:01:49.440 --> 00:01:50.100 align:middle line:90%
him.

00:01:50.100 --> 00:01:52.860 align:middle line:84%
And that set him on
edge, sent through him

00:01:52.860 --> 00:01:55.110 align:middle line:84%
a pure rush of
adrenaline whenever

00:01:55.110 --> 00:01:57.750 align:middle line:84%
he considered objectively
the recklessness

00:01:57.750 --> 00:02:01.320 align:middle line:84%
of the James and Jim
B business venture.

00:02:01.320 --> 00:02:05.040 align:middle line:84%
After lunch, when Gato shook
Van's hand, he said, "You,

00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:06.720 align:middle line:90%
I can trust."

00:02:06.720 --> 00:02:08.729 align:middle line:84%
And there it was,
the foil that held

00:02:08.729 --> 00:02:11.280 align:middle line:84%
the cure, the only
calm in the world,

00:02:11.280 --> 00:02:13.770 align:middle line:84%
right there in the
palm of his hand.

00:02:13.770 --> 00:02:16.290 align:middle line:84%
Van could see the
flame under the spoon,

00:02:16.290 --> 00:02:18.510 align:middle line:84%
the glass-packed
syringe, the bodies

00:02:18.510 --> 00:02:20.520 align:middle line:90%
in the backseat of the car.

00:02:20.520 --> 00:02:23.490 align:middle line:84%
He could see Darlene
draped across a bed crying.

00:02:23.490 --> 00:02:24.810 align:middle line:90%
No, revise that.

00:02:24.810 --> 00:02:29.040 align:middle line:84%
Darlene at a table signing
books, her smile insincere,

00:02:29.040 --> 00:02:31.470 align:middle line:90%
her fame small consolation.

00:02:31.470 --> 00:02:35.370 align:middle line:84%
He could see a prison cell, then
a small room in an old motel,

00:02:35.370 --> 00:02:40.500 align:middle line:84%
where the disabled and discarded
rented rooms for $300 a month.

00:02:40.500 --> 00:02:42.690 align:middle line:90%
Te vas a caer, the voice said.

00:02:42.690 --> 00:02:44.580 align:middle line:90%
Gato's blue eyes watched.

00:02:44.580 --> 00:02:47.280 align:middle line:84%
The phone in Van's
pocket vibrated.

00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:50.280 align:middle line:84%
The door of the motel
opened and an old man

00:02:50.280 --> 00:02:54.750 align:middle line:84%
stood there, an old man with
gnarled hair and yellow teeth

00:02:54.750 --> 00:02:58.620 align:middle line:84%
and nicotine-stained
fingers, dirty clothes.

00:02:58.620 --> 00:03:03.300 align:middle line:84%
He lit a cigarette and
waited for his sister."

00:03:03.300 --> 00:03:04.530 align:middle line:90%
That's the end.

00:03:04.530 --> 00:03:06.410 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:03:06.410 --> 00:03:08.230 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:03:08.230 --> 00:03:09.000 align:middle line:90%