set the scene:
you are opening a letter from an old enemy
I open a letter from ashley. She was my girlfriend when I was 19 or 20 about to go to montreal. Although we seemed to be very affectionate toward one another she was prone to go on long violent and argumentative rants about things that I did wrong. I was still in love with teresa back then. To be fair I really wasn't a very good person at the time.
I read the letter
“youre a fucking idiot and im going to come kill you.”
shouldn't have been a surprise, really. I've wanted to call her up for a few years now and apologize to her about how things ended. She didn't deserve to be treated badly by me, but I was 19 and had no idea what I was doing. Do people need to apologize for the things they do at nineteen? Im not sure.
I think about how she dated one of my close friends, james for a couple years by complete chance. And although ashley probably divulged my awful secrets about scamming my mom for pot money and for gambling money away, james still ended up being my friend after everything was said and done. And then james died and I constantly feel sad and miss him especially for not treating him well before he died. I think about all the times I hang out in vr and how I wish he was around to help me music for my projects.
Plot twist:
something happens that you don't quite understand
james comes back to life in the form of an apparition.
“hey george.”
“james, you're back.”
“yeah.”
“what happened to being dead?”
“i'm still dead lol”
“oh. Did you want to play 3rd strike?”
“yeah.”
“you've always been better than me at that game. I wish I had gotten better. I miss 2df emulators that let us play online”
“yeah.”
“i miss you a lot. I think preetom misses you too, he wears that shirt with your face on it a lot. I don't think I could ever wear a memorial shirt of you.”
“lol, I understand.”
“hows heaven?”
“it's okay. It's more just like a place where dead people go. There isn't really a heaven or a hell it's just a place.”
“oh.”
“yeah. Food is okay though.”
“what'd you get this morning?”
“hash browns”
“sounds really good. Hey, i'm sorry about everything.”
“i told you, it's okay.”
“your mom seems to be doing good”
“she still cries every night.”
“that makes sense. My mom would cry too.”
we sit in silence as james starts eating more hash browns
“be careful there. I can't believe I made a joke about you eating hash browns, even now.,” I say.
“you can't help it.”
plot twist: something expected happens
I give james a hug but can't actually touch him because he's ethereal.
“i'm sorry I was such a jerk to you before you died.”
“i told you, it's okay.”
“have you seen all this coronavirus stuff? It's driving me crazy”
“yeah. It's scary down there lol”
“what's it like where you are?”
“it's okay. There are long lines and not enough people working at food stands.”
“what's the incentive of working at a food stand anyway?”
“it's a punishment for not being nice when you were on earth. If you refuse to work then you get
sent back as a crab”
“oh. Are there people who would rather get sent back as crabs?”
“not really.”
plot twist:
you fall asleep
I feel myself getting sleepy.
“hey james, i'm sorry. I need to sleep.”
“it's okay.”
“we'll play street fighter another time. I miss playing with you”
“i know.”
“i could only beat you at one game.”
“i know.”
“i wonder if we'll ever meet again”
“probably, lol”
“good night”
“night.”
I close my eyes and drift off to sleep. I can see james sitting there playing street fighter in the background. It's extremely comforting knowing that he's there doing the thing that he loves most, even more than when he would make music.
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