Photo

            As he walks down the street with a picture at hand, Doug tries to lift his spirit with his friend’s face planted against the wall of his mind, searching for the answer of why. His eyes scrambling left and right, up and down, side to side with a sense of melancholy and fear. He regains his confidence in a heartbeat, but drops it with the velocity of lightspeed. His face begins to become dull and heavy, hands start to shake and legs too weak to take a simple step.
            His friend standing in the photo, putting his two fingers in the back of Doug’s head, always having fun on his mind. His guilt rising and suggesting that he should have been the one to leave, that it was his turn and not his pal. Doug starts to remember his friend’s final hours.
            The night started with the two buddies driving to a local bar at about 6:00pm, looking at the women who walk by, thinking about how they were going to have a good time. Doug looks over to his friend and stops the car in concern. “Hey, what are you going to do when we get there? he said. “ You’ve never done anything like this in your life.” His friend looks at him with an expression of confusion and mild shock. “We all have our firsts; mine is just a little delayed.” They both laugh and Doug continues to drive…
             Later that night, they emerge from the doors of the bar, cracking lame jokes that will make no sense to their light-selves, holding their drinks. They both look up at the neon sign, making critical claims about the “L” and “A” missing from the name of the bar. With hysteria in their minds, they started walking back to their vehicle. “To the parking lot!” shouted Doug. However, lack of memory of why the car was not present would halt them for more than a half hour. Finally, they both realize that it was placed behind the building. They gather up their distorted sense and move to the car. Through the alley they went, when a shadow appears with a tube end. It shouts “Give me your cash and nobody gets hurt!” Both Doug and his friend split away from the darkness with an unbalanced ground below their feet. Doug, behind his friend, stumbles to the floor of concrete just as the shadow fires. The bullet soars above Doug and enters the abyss of Doug’s pal. The shadow disappears with a flash of a second. Doug rushes to the cold body lying on the Earth. Blood rushes out of the wound near his heart creating a puddle of red rum.
            Doug’s mind now rushes back to the picture in his hands. Doug kept looking at the photo. He felt like collapsing right on the side walk, but with the time being 5:30 pm, he didn’t want the people in their cars to have a thought of confusion in their heads while eating. He forced himself to walk to his own living quarters, still feeling that he should have gone away instead of his friend. He cheated death by tripping. He started walking again, putting the photo in his jacket pocket.
            10 minutes later, he felt a strange wind. All of a sudden, it lifted the photo out of Doug’s pocket. He chased it down across the street, clasping it before it landed in a mud spot. He examines the photo to see if there was dirt. As he was cleaning it, he notices something different about the photo. There was a black line that was somehow visible from the other side.  He finally took a look at the back and finds new writing. “I forgive you. Now you forgive yourself. –Jerry”. Doug looks back and says, “ Thanks man, you’re still a good friend.”