Ray got down on his hands and knees, though it hurt him to bend in half, and frantically cleared away the rest of the dirt, revealing an old, tattered suitcase. He stared at it for a moment, not wanting to touch it, still in disbelief that he’d found something. He took a deep breath and heaved the heavy parcel onto solid ground. There was definitely something in it. But he didn’t open it.
“What you waitin’ for, Ray?”
“Do me a favor, Crisp,” Ray said, sitting on the dusty ground next to the suitcase, twilight approaching, “I got one more marker in that thing. Read it for me, would ya?”
Ray pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. The brush with death had given him a new attitude toward the cancer sticks and he’d managed to convince Penny to grab him a pack of Parliaments when she w
