"Yeah," says Johnny to them both, more than ready to try this, though there's weighted dread in his stomach, a distant certainty that this isn't going to work. Natural laws are being violated left and right here, why should this work, no matter how sensible they all insist on being about it?

Obviously he wants to try, and it's all he can do not to hope. He doesn't think he has it in him for the disappointment.