“I guess so,” said Lloyd uncertainly. He took his hands out of his pockets, crossed his arms, stood there silently. He went up on the balls of his feet, then down again. He stuffed his hands back in his pockets. “So, um, about the other thing Tommy mentioned.”

Tommy bumped his shoulder against Lloyd’s. “He’s being all shy about it, but he wants to know what we’re prepared to give him for all his awesome help.”

But something had caught Steve’s eye. He pointed to a spot on the drawing. “What’s an Eric?”

Lloyd looked and said, “Exit. It’s an emergency exit.”

Steve nodded. “The grease stain makes it look like Eric. Emergency Eric. Hey, that should be your name in the band. It’s a little more rock and roll than Lloyd, don’t you think?”

“That’s actually not too bad.”

“So, what is it you’d like, Emergency Eric? What’s getting inside going to cost us?”

Lloyd shuffled from foot to foot. He started to say something and stopped. Finally, he crossed his arms and said, “Ten thousand dollars.”

Steve and the others laughed lightly.

“Son, do we look like we have ten thousand dollars lying around? The last time I saw ten thousand dollars was in a Clint Eastwood movie.”

“The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” said Jerry.

“That’s the one. Now, tell me what it is you really want so we can get things rolling.”

Lloyd swallowed and looked at Tommy, who gave him a thumbs-up. With the plan suddenly getting real, Lloyd wasn’t sure he wanted to be there anymore.

“You know, I blew off band rehearsal to come here tonight,” he said.

“And we appreciate that,” said Steve. “But we still don’t have ten thousand dollars.”

Lloyd was sweating. What he really wanted to do was go home, open up the sofa bed, crawl in, and pull the covers up over his head. Instead, he stood up straight.

“Five,” said Lloyd.

Steve shook his head. “Can’t do it.”

“Be serious, Lloyd,” said Tommy.

“Yeah. You might as well ask for one of our trucks,” said Jerry.

Lloyd looked around, trying to think, but he didn’t have a lot of business experience. A week earlier, he’d bought a color TV off a guy in a truck and when he got home all he found inside the box were bricks and a pack of Skittles, and even those were stale.

Steve leaned on the table. “That’s not a bad idea, son,” he said to Jerry. “What about it, Lloyd? That band of yours have a van to haul equipment? I bet a truck would come in handy.”

Lloyd scratched the back of his neck. “Huh. A truck? You serious?”