“Stay out of sight,” Frank says. “Don’t let anyone know you were talking with me.” Corky stares at him. “You gonna take them on, Frank? Take my advice. Don’t do it. You don’t want to end up like me.” “You’re okay, Corky.” “I won’t see another summer, Frankie.” And then he’s gone. Eyes sunk back in his head with the thousand-yard stare, and Frank realizes that Corky Corchoran is in a place where he lives alone—somewhere in the past, maybe, somewhere in the future, nowhere in the here and now.
