The Falls Read Online Free

become an engineer you have to be smart and have lots of money, right?”
    â€œYeah, probably,” I answered.
    â€œSo, unless your mother’s making a lot more money working at the casino than I think, you haven’t got any money,” Timmy said. “And unless I saw your last report card wrong, you ain’t that smart, either.”
    â€œI do a lot better than you do!” I snapped.
    â€œBig deal.
Everybody
does a lot better than I do. Being smarter than me isn’t something that’s gonna win you a medal . . . or get you into engineer school.”
    Maybe my marks weren’t that high, but I did pass every subject, and I was good at math, and if I really did work harder I knew I could bring my marks up and . . . who was I kidding?
    â€œWhat do you want to be now?” Timmy asked.
    I shrugged and shook my head. “I don’t know.”
    â€œMe neither, and that’s why neither of us is a loser.”
    â€œWhat are you talking about?” I asked.
    â€œBefore, you had all these dreams about being some sort of engineer, right?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œAnd now you don’t, right?”
    â€œNot anymore.”
    â€œAnd that’s why you aren’t a loser anymore.”
    â€œLet me get this straight,” I said. “When I had dreams, I was a loser. Now I don’t have dreams, I’m not a loser.”
    â€œExactly!” Timmy stuck his knife into the table to punctuate his point. “The only losers I know are the guys who aren’t smart enough to know that there’s no point in having a dream that isn’t going to come true. The ones who believe they have a chance to make something of themselves, they’re the real losers.”
    â€œYou’re kidding me, right?”
    Timmy shook his head. “Look around. Who do you know who made it?”
    â€œMade it?”
    â€œGot their dream.”
    â€œSome people get the things they dream about,” I argued.
    â€œYeah? Name one.”
    â€œWell . . . people on TV, or that you read about in the newspaper or—”
    â€œI’m talking about
real
people, people from here, people you know. Name one, just one.”
    â€œHow about the Jamisons?” I asked.
    â€œThey won a frigging lottery!” Timmy exclaimed. “And not even the big prize, just fifty thousand dollars! And besides, all they really did with the money was buy a second-hand car that kept breaking down and a double-wide trailer. Is that your idea of making it . . . to end up in a double-wide trailer?”
    â€œNo, it’s just—”
    â€œYou’re not a loser,” Tim said. “Just don’t start getting any stupid ideas.”
    â€œWanting more than this is stupid?”
    â€œWanting it isn’t. That’s human nature. Thinking you have a chance to get it . . . now that’s stupid.”
    â€œYou know what
is
stupid?”
    â€œWhat?” Timmy asked.
    â€œYou!”
    â€œHey, don’t get mad at me for telling you the truth,” he said.
    â€œYou wouldn’t know the truth if it bit you in the butt!” I snapped.
    â€œLook around,” Timmy said. “Nobody from here ever gets anywhere else. Nobody makes it.”
    â€œI’m not from around here,” I said.
    â€œYou’re not? You were born here.”
    â€œBut I left.”
    â€œAnd you came
back
. That’s even worse. Get real.”
    â€œI am real. More real than you, saying that nobody from here ever makes it.”
    â€œI’m not talking about somebody who got a job at the casino, or working in the Ripley’s Museum, or some guy who’s the night manager at some stupid hotel barely making minimum wage. I’m talking about somebody who
really
made it.”
    I got up from the bench. “Well maybe I’m going to be the first.”
    â€œYou?” he asked, and he chuckled.
    â€œWhy not