“It all has to do with missing the big question and…and…being executed. I mean I…”

“What? What do you mean?”

“I want to live, Retta Mae. I can’t accept anymore the thought of being executed at the end of the program and my life being over. I mean…Jesus.”

“You should have thought about that before you volunteered to be a contestant.”

“But that was before I met you,” said Linus Major, looking at the floor.

Billy Constable sat in a corner of the green room, fidgety and tense. He was just one skinny body of jangling nerve ends. He kept rubbing his palms together as if he were washing his hands. When he wasn’t doing that he was scratching the backs of his ears, first one, then the other. He was constantly shaking his right foot.

His friends Jimmy Joel Jenks and Rosie Feinstein sat on either side of him. “Calm down, Billy,” said Jimmy Joel.

“I can’t. I gotta get on this program. I just gotta. I’m a dead man if I don’t.”

“Worrying yourself to death isn’t going to help,” said Rosie Feinstein.

“You could be a dead man if you get on the program too,” said Jimmy Joel. “Ever think of that?”

“You know what really bugs me, Rosie?” said Billy. “What really bugs me is they picked that girl over there, the black one, an’ not me. They already got one black guy, the big dude sittin’ on the couch next to her. Ain’t that enough blacks?”

“I don’t like that kind of talk, Billy. I really don’t,” said Rosie Feinstein, turning away from Billy.

“Yeah, well…,” mumbled Billy.

“Imagine,” said Jimmy Joel Jenks, “meetin’ my ol’ coworkin’ buddy Linus Major here! I had no idea he was gonna be on the program.”

“He sure was glad to see you, JJ,” said Rosie Feinstein.

“You hear what I just told you two?” snapped Billy angrily.

“Yes, we heard you,” said Rosie. “You’ve got to get on the program.”

“But, Jesus, my buddy Linus is on the program,” said a wide-eyed Jimmy Joel Jenks. “I had no idea they picked him too. He didn’t even tell me he was goin’ up to the office. He didn’t say nothin’ at all. An’ we work together! His locker’s right next to mine! Look at him. He don’t look nervous or nothin’. I think that’s kinda amazin’.”

Billy couldn’t care less about Jimmy Joel Jenk’s goddamn stupid buddy being on the show. All he cared about was getting a crack at that hundred million dollars.

“I’m not gonna get on that damn show, am I, Rosie? Not really. Even with my damn omen an’ prayin’, an’ my dream, an’ God talkin’ to me, even with all that, my chances are still pretty slim, ain’t they? Slim to none is what they are, ain’t they, Rosie? But what if I do get on the show but miss the big question? I’ll miss winnin’ all that money.”

“And get yourself executed,” said Rosie, her eyes watering up.