The Showman

Sometimes, when I really, really like something I read online, I click the print button twice with a kind of subliminal string – Maybe this will disappear from the WWW, and then maybe, because you never know, one of my copies will be lost or misplaced, so I better print two, just in case. Just in case.

I print Michael Brick twice a lot. I did this one three times:

Then the shots are gone, and 2 o'clock is gone, and the last customers are gone in outsize camouflage, cockeyed caps and big jeans and no belts. The showman takes out a duffel bag, and there are pictures of square sunglasses and leisure suits, chest hair and Pete on drums. Bearded Pete and his girl camera-ready before brown wallpaper long out of fashion.

"When I croak, I have this bag," the showman says. "I'm not alone. I'm not afraid. When you're yourself, you say, 'I did what I had to do.' "