Grand Canyon Page #3

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It could have been

curtains, Dad.

Roberto,

could I talk?

See you

tomorrow, Dad.

Good night, pal.

You want me

to come and get you?

Nah. If they don't finish,

I'll take a cab.

Sleep. I'll tell about

my adventure tomorrow.

Adventure?

Mack, what happened?

Are you all right?

I'm fine.

Go to bed, honey.

I love you.

Love you, too.

Bye.

You can go swimming

in the ocean every day

and be perfectly cool,

you know.

Then one day,

one particular day,

you bump into

the big shark.

The big shark

don't hate you.

He's got no feeling

for you at all.

You look

like food to him.

You don't hate

hamburger, do you, huh?

Yeah.

Those boys back there,

they ain't got

nothing to lose.

If you just happen

to be swimming along

and bump into them,

well...

It might not be

worth worrying about.

It's like being

in a plane crash.

Well,

that's comforting.

I'm glad you

brought that up.

There just seems to be

so many ways to buy it,

particularly

in this city.

I'm amazed at

the end of each day

that anybody's alive.

Then other days I think

that maybe people

aren't so fragile.

Things have always

been kind of brutal,

and people just

keep on going.

You ever been

to the Grand Canyon?

I always meant to go.

I was there.

It only takes about

nine hours from here.

I know. We were planning

to take my boy.

How old is he?

15? Probably won't

want to go with you now,

probably go

with his friends

and his chick now.

You've missed

that boat.

What's his name?

Roberto.

Roberto.

After Roberto Clemente.

No sh*t.

Man, get yourself

to the Grand Canyon.

Beautiful, huh?

It's pretty, but that's

not the thing of it.

You can sit right

on the edge of it.

I did that.

I did everything.

I went down in it,

stayed overnight there.

The thing that got me

was sitting on the edge

of that big old thing.

Those cliffs and rocks,

they're so old.

It took so long

for that thing

to get to look

like that.

It ain't done either.

It happens right while

you're sitting there

watching it.

It's happening right now

while we're sitting here

in this ugly town.

Yeah.

When you sit on the edge

of that thing,

you just realize what

a joke we people are.

What big heads we got,

thinking that what we do

is gonna matter

all that much,

thinking our time here

means diddly

to those rocks.

It's a split second

we've been here,

the whole lot of us.

And one of us?

That's a piece of time

too small to get a name.

You trying

to cheer me up?

Yeah. Those rocks

are laughing at me.

I could tell.

Me and my worries

is real humorous to

that Grand Canyon.

Hey, you know

what I felt like?

I felt like a gnat

that lands

on the ass of a cow

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