 As friends go, Brian was always a strange one. I never knew what he was going to pull next. I didn’t really mind it when we were going to school. In fact I rather enjoyed it. The combination of pressure from school, and the constant parental head-trips from my dear old dad, more or less drove me to him. He always was the consummate practical joker; a character trait that finally got him killed. If it wasn’t for his intense need to mess with my head, he would never have played chicken, with the eighteen-wheeler in the first place. As my mind wandered back to that awful day, I began to remember why I both loved and hated the guy. "Damn it Brian, why the hell did you bring me out here in the middle of nowhere at this ungodly hour? We have exam finals in 2 days, and I can’t blow this or my dad will shred my hide with a switch. If I screw this up, I’ll end up working for him on that garbage scow he calls a fishing boat for the rest of my life." "Pete my boy, haven’t I taught you anything yet? All work and no play are making you, a very dull boy. You may be the brightest student at school. You may even know a lot about life. But you know nothing about living." Brian said laughing. "And standing on the side of a deserted highway stoned out of our heads in the middle of the night is somehow going to change all that?"
Page - 22 J.D.Tanner - PsiTronix "That’s the idea. Even I can see that the pressure is really starting to get to you. You need to loosen up and learn to live a little. Everyone needs to cut loose and do something crazy every now and then. It reminds us that we are alive." He said. I had no idea just how crazy Brian really was, until he wandered out into the middle of the road and just stood there, as the headlights of an eighteen-wheeler pierced the darkness. "What the hell? Brian are you nuts? Get back here." I yelled at him in panic. "Peter," he said laughing loudly, "you’re being a stick in the mud. You really should try living life on the edge once in a while." "Damn it Brian, playing chicken with a Semi is not my idea of a fun time. Now kindly get your butt back over here before I have to take you home in a body bag!" I said yelling frantically. Brian just stood there smiling, with his arms outstretched as if daring the truck to hit him as its headlights loomed closer and closer. A part of me wanted to run across the road and tackle the bastard, hopefully pushing him out of the way of the truck at the same time, but panic had set in and I froze.
Page - 23 J.D.Tanner - PsiTronix The sound of the truck was almost deafening now; it’s headlights blinding to the eye. I tried to scream, but my lips moved silently and nothing came out of my mouth. Brian turned his head and smiled at me, as he gracefully spun out of harms way. He started walking across the other lane towards me laughing, oblivious to the eighteen-wheeler barreling down on him from the other direction. It was all over in moments, and he never even saw it coming. The poor truck driver didn’t even have time to hit the breaks. He even blamed himself for it, sobbing something about other things he might have done to prevent this, but the truth is Brian never had a chance. I don’t know how I managed to write my finals, but somehow I struggled through them. Badly perhaps but I wrote them all the same, and barely passed my finals at the bottom of my class. I was even invited to Brian’s funeral, but I couldn’t bring myself to go. I couldn’t bear to face his parents, knowing that there might have been something I could have done to change the outcome and failed. And now, after all these years, the bastard was back, crazier then ever, tormenting me at every turn. Knowing Brian, he would simply say, "isn’t that what friends are for?"
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