[INTRO — instrumental, stomping upright bass, distant sax] [HOOK — cracked, half-yelled] Vending machine dinner (wing C) Two grown men and a danish between Vending machine dinner (wing C) Say the thing, Ray — say the thing, Gene Just say it (vending machine dinner) [VERSE 1 — agitated, hushed] Fluorescent hallway, second floor, wing C (wing C) Mom's been in since Tuesday, surgery at three Was a success — they say it like a weather note Me and Ray-Ray in the hallway with our coats Still on — six hours since either of us ate Vending machine glowing like a little church — wait Two bags of chips, a danish wrapped in plastic Coffee that could strip a deck — fantastic We split it on a window ledge like kings Talking 'bout the game, the truck, the usual things Everything but the room behind door nine Where our whole beginning's sleeping off the wine Of anesthesia — we don't go there, not yet We're brothers — we stand guard and we deflect [HOOK — cracked, half-yelled] Vending machine dinner (wing C) Two grown men and a danish between Vending machine dinner (wing C) Say the thing, Ray — say the thing, Gene Just say it (vending machine dinner) [BRIDGE — bass only, voice bare] Hospitals got a food group: waiting And a language: everything but the thing We ate the whole menu, spoke the whole tongue Then we walked through door nine and said the thing [VERSE 2 — whisper cracking up to yell] Ray says remember when she caught us with the mower Racing down the hill — I thought my life was over I say remember how she worked the bakery counter Came home smelling like a Saturday, would flounce her Apron at our father like a matador And we're laughing in the hallway — then we're not — door nine Is quiet — and Ray-Ray finally says the thing What if she — and I let the silence ring A second — then I say the truest thing I know She's mom — she ain't done — but even so Even so, Ray — we gotta learn to say The love part out loud while she's awake today Not in a hallway over chips someday So we finish the danish and we walk back in And we both say it — and she grins in her medicine Says: took you long enough — now hand me the chips [OUTRO — sax fades over brushes] (wing C...) She's getting the chips She earned 'em
