ricky volunteered to go out and buy some more booze.
as he walked down to the corner store, the sun was shining and a cool breeze was blowing.
life was good, ricky thought. he had some great friends who really liked him, and life was good.
when ricky got to the store, it was surprisingly empty. everybody except ricky and his friends must have gone to the beach.
when he went to the cash register with the two quarts, he noticed that in addition to the beer nuts and beef jerky displayed on the counter, they had some packs of the pistachio nuts he liked so much but which he had not been able to find lately.
wow! how good could it get!
as ricky walked back up the street to jody’s place with the two quarts and the pistachio nuts, his feet fairly flew along the ground.
as he pushed open the door to jody’s little dump of a house and walked in, he heard loud voices and laughter.
but the voices and laughter stopped as soon as he stepped in.
jody and billie and frank and lucky and aaron all turned and looked at him.
ricky realized they all been talking about him and laughing at him.
in that moment he knew that everything he had ever thought or believed was an illusion, that nobody really liked him or ever would, that life was a flat joke, and that the universe was both mysterious and empty.
“that didn’t take long,” jody said , and got up and took the bag with the two quarts and the pistachio nuts in it out of ricky’s hands.
“it was empty,” ricky answered. “everybody must have gone to the beach.”
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