A pool salesman struggles to cope with a weak economy, which has forced him to rethink the meaning of the American Dream:
‘You can’t be too safe or too smart about money with the economy now,’ Tyler said. ‘I want to save up and make the smart investments.’
‘You’ll make them,’ Frank said, nodding.
‘I want to have that absolute stability,’ Tyler said.
‘You’ll have it.’
They stayed out on the deck until the sun disappeared behind the townhouses. Frank went to bed just before midnight and awoke at 4. He always had been a sound sleeper, but lately he had been putting himself to bed with Tylenol PM and stirring awake to questions in the middle of the night. When had stability become the goal in America? What kind of dream was that? And in the economy of 2012, was it even attainable?
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