“Crazy, man, I remember,” said Fitzy, sitting back again and looking into the past, “some of the shit he used to do, I for sure thought was going to kill us.”

They went on for a few minutes with Teddy memories.

“Did you ever wet with Teddy?” Fitzy asked.

They all looked at him, even Jed who had maybe never heard of Teddy before now, and Ben felt how much they wanted him to be Teddy in that moment, to deliver something mythic and undeniably right into their lives. And he wanted to do that so badly too.

“Um…”

“Is it set?” Ennis looked at Fitz, who nodded.

“Switch with him, man.”

Ben got up and they switched seats. The CD changer clunked and spun, and Hendrix, “The Wind Cries Mary,” came on. The Chute had done a sound check with Dennett and there was a mark in Wite-Out on the amp dial that showed the maximum allowed volume.

“Oh, I love this song,” said Ben.

“Glad to accommodate you,” said Ennis, laughing.

Ben looked down behind the arm of the couch. A Snapple bottle three-quarters full of what looked like tea stood next to a little brass cup. From above, it was hard to tell how big the cup was. He reached down and was surprised to find that it had a stem and a pedestal; it looked like an Indian oil candle. He picked up the cup and held it in front of his face to inspect it.

“Don’t hold your shot, man. Take it,” said Ian.

“What?”

“Don’t hold it!” said Ennis. “Drink that shit.”

Ben put the rim of the cup to his lips and tasted what was there. It was like warm paint thinner. He tipped it all into his mouth. His gullet clenched against it, he gripped the little cup around the stem, but he stayed still and managed, after many seconds, saliva flooding his mouth, to get it down.

“Wow, that looked smooth,” said Fitzy. Everyone laughed, including Ben, genuinely. He felt better. “Hoo,” he said.

“Is this firsting?” Ennis asked with wonder.

“It is, yeah.” Should he have made up a story about stealing gin with Tim Green?

“Yes! Oh, that is so great,” said Ian. “Sketching Teddy Weeks’s brother! All right, set one up for me and then we’re going back to you.”

Ben opened the Snapple bottle. He poured out the whiskey, making sure the liquid came out just as wide along the rim as before.

He stood up and switched with Ian, who clapped Ben on the shoulder so hard that he had to step over a little to keep his balance. Ben sat in the turned-around chair and looked at Jed again. They smiled at each other.