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to use his car for the day, and left him my Marine Corps ring as extra security. Had some other
adventures, which I won’t bother recapping—”
“Was the bridge still out in Durham?”
“Don’t know, buddy, I didn’t even try going that way. A person who doesn’t learn from the past is
an idiot, in my estimation. One thing I learned was which way Andrew Cullum would be coming, and
I wasted no time getting there. The tree was down across the road, just like before, and when he came
along, I was wrestling with it, just like before. Pretty soon I’m having chest pains, just like before.
We played out the whole comedy, Carolyn Poulin had her Saturday in the woods with her dad, and a
couple of weeks later I said yahoo and got on a train for Texas.”
“Then how can I still have this picture of her graduating in a wheelchair?”
“Because every trip down the rabbit-hole’s a reset.” Then Al just looked at me, to see if I got it.
After a minute, I did.
“I—?”
“That’s right, buddy. You bought yourself a dime root beer this afternoon. You also put Carolyn
Poulin back in a wheelchair.”