Stuff Dreams Are Made Of Read Online Free Page A

blown the entire night’s take.
    “More beer?” Crayer pulled a couple of long necks from the aluminum cooler by the side of Stan’s trailer. We’d already swallowed three, and I pushed myself away from the table.
    “I’m going to have to decline. I’ve got work tomorrow, and then
this
again tomorrow night.”
    “Skip, couple more hands here. I can win this back and we can really go home with a stash.” James gave me a pleading look.
    I grabbed him by the shoulder, and he shook my hand off. “Come on, amigo. One more hand.” He twisted the cap off his beer and played another hand. Now he was down $500. It was obvious they could smell blood. Stan, Bruce, Dusty, Mug all pleaded with him to stay in the game.
    James looked down at his dwindling stake, shoved the few paltry dollars back in his pocket and sadly shook his head. “Got to take Skip home, guys.”
    Stan pointed up the lane. “Girls comin’ in half an hour.”
    James and I both perked up a little. “Girls?”
    “Thought maybe Bruce told you. Where there’s loose money, they’ll find it.”
    I glanced at my partner, his big smile dwindling. “Working girls?”
    The guy with the big face and shaved head named Mug, laughed out loud. “They’ll be workin’ their asses off once they get here. We set ’em up in a small tent over by the Intracoastal Waterway.” He pointed off to the right, behind a stand of trees, where the state had built a series of shelters that looked out on the man-made waterway. Working girls. Another fine use of the Florida taxpayer’s dollar. A tented whorehouse.
    “Uh, I think we’ll pass.”
    “Tomorrow night,” Stan the pizza guy jammed his finger into my chest, “you stay late. There’s a special little treat goin’ on and I think you young guys would enjoy it. Stay late, got it?”
    We said our good-byes and Crayer said goodnight as well. The three of us worked our way up the end of the dirt road.
    “I’m stayin’ in a little trailer just over there.” Crayer pointed to a spot in the distance where a scattering of dim lights shone from tents and trailers. “Most of the guys you met stay there.”
    “What about the other vendors?”
    “Most of the others are like you. They’re local and they go home in the evening. Got families and stuff. We’re on the road. If the rev’s got a gig, we do that, but we spread out and do shows all over the country. Fairs, carnivals, sometime even other revival meetings with other guys.”
    “Well, we’re driving the truck back to our apartment. We’ll see you tomorrow night. Thanks for showing us the ropes.” I shook his hand.
    “Hell, you guys were goin’ like gangbusters tonight. You got the hang of it right away.”
    James nodded. “Tell me something, Bruce. When Cashdollar brings all this force to bear on somebody like Barry Romans, you’re telling me he can get him fired? That’s pretty serious power. What’s happened in the past?”
    James was obsessed with it. Power, money, making something happen with his young life. He wouldn’t pass up any chance for a learning experiece. My best friend, the entrepreneur.
    “I’ve been doin’ this little circus for a lot of years. Three years with the rev, but lots of years on different circuits.” Crayer ran his hand through his thinning hair. “I’ve made enough donuts to circle this world a hundred times, so I’ve got a little background.”
    “And?”
    “The rev started out like a lot of them, with fire and brimstone. God’s gonna getcha’ if you don’t straighten up.”
    I remembered the revival meeting Buzz and I had gone to many years ago. Somewhere, I remembered, not too far from here. I had no recollection of who the preacher was. I just remember he marched around his platform with a Bible clutched in his hand and he was angry. Angry at the Devil and just about everyone else.
    “And I believe that he changed people’s lives. I do. But it’s a different world out there.”
    “How’s that?” James