Doug: Wake

My friends keep dying.

First it was Zak. He didn't deserve to get wrapped around the Taco Cabana sign. He didn't deserve a lot of what happened to him. He didn't deserve the Teretz, or the people making fun of him for it.

I didn't deserve him as a friend.

Too late to appreciate that now. He's gone.

Another couple years. I'm older. Another Zach dies. Lovejoy. I won't lie. There were a lot of times that I did not like Zach Lovejoy. He was a pain in the ass sometimes. But he was also a damnably loyal friend. As they say, a nightmare for his enemies and never a more trustworthy friend.

Zach joined the Army. Zach had a fiancee. Zach grew up a lot faster than the rest of us did.

Zach drove over an IED in Afghanistan.

I don't know how much was left, and it doesn't really matter.

Two of my friends.

I woke up in tears last night. In my dream, I had to explain to Chris Whippo's parents why they couldn't see his body. It was because the car bomb hadn't left anything larger than his boot.

Chris Whippo is still alive. However. It is unlikely that very many of the friends I have made are going to go quietly in their sleep.

This is the life I live.

-Doug

"What's wrong? Why are you crying?"

"I have become a man with ghosts."