It’s Friday. My best friend Bob is in Port Aransas on the gulf coast with the ashes of his recently deceased girlfriend Linda. Bob asked me to go with him, and I wanted to, but I had so many things to do, and then of course I didn’t. I have trouble leaving the house sometimes. To be fair, Bob didn’t tell me he was planning on scattering Linda’s ashes.
As it turned out, he didn’t end up scattering her ashes in the ocean. Instead, he put them in a vase and took her ashes out for a drink. Linda was the best person in the world to have a drink with. She was a fount of great stories, and she laughed a lot. We once ordered a tidy-bowl blue punchbowl with four straws because she thought it would be hilarious to share a drink that look like something the set designers for Gilligan’s Island whipped up to go with all those coconut banana creme pies. And because I was with Linda it was hilarious, and magical.
I have trouble getting out of the house, but when I had the opportunity to have a drink with Linda, I dropped everything. Since Bob didn’t scatter her ashes, I’ll probably go have a drink sometime with the ashes of Linda in the vase. Having a drink with imaginary Linda will probably be better than having a drink with most real people.