Sammy said that when he told a fellow Arby’s co-worker that one of his friends was having trouble with dreams, the co-worker asked if it was because of Michael Jackson’s death and “what his kids must be going through.” Sammy tries to like everyone, and up to that point he had been fine with Trisha. He couldn’t manage it, though. He told her he didn’t know Michael Jackson, that nobody he knew had ever met Michael Jackson, and that if he later found out that Michael Jackson was really a cyborg created by the CIA using a new type of synthetic skin, then it wouldn’t affect either his or Trisha’s life one single bit. That under no circumstances should she be talking about Michael Jackson until she first spoke about the fact that yesterday was the anniversary of the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence, which did a whole lot more to define both her existence and consciousness than anything Michael Jackson ever sang, no matter how many times she watches Access Hollywood. Then Trisha called Sammy gay, and finished getting some curly fries for a drive-thru order.
At Boyce's Charlotte made us chocolate chip cookies which was her way of saying she didn’t mind we were over. While we ate I showed Boyce a mouthguard to wear while he slept to help in the short term with chipping more teeth. We played Risk for a while like we always do. We never finish the games because Boyce comes to peace arrangements and says he’s content to rule the land he has. I always say he needs to keep fighting because that’s the game, and so he swept all the men off the board and said, “There, swine flu wins.” Every time Boyce ends the game this way by sweeping his arm across the board, he says a different disease: ebola, tuberculosis, yellow fever, AIDS, the plague, rubella, smallpox, syphilis.
After Risk Sammy said he was worried he didn't act weird enough and might get chosen for the jury. Boyce said he was afraid there wasn’t enough work for him to keep getting full-time hours as a locksmith. I told them I miss Rachel. Then we figured out which were the five most sensual fruits. Answer: strawberries, cherries, grapes, mangoes, and pomegranates. Sammy wanted it noted that he disagreed about pomegranates, and instead would like to have seen olives on the list.
Boyce slept on the couch, I slept on the floor, and Sammy slept on a recliner. We asked Boyce what would be signs that he was dreaming he was Jud. Boyce wasn’t sure, but singing, hoeing, bidding at a pie auction, and dying were all possibilities.
In the morning Boyce told us he didn’t dream about being Jud, but he did dream about Rachel. I never dream about Rachel. Just like I don’t dream about birds or doubling down on a good hand. I asked Boyce what she was doing, and he said practicing on one of my boomerangs. I said that was stupid. She wasn’t coming back. Boyce said I was stupid, but then he got what I meant.
