Lo and behold! My ex best friend came out of the woodwork for the first time in a half a year and brought me some coffee. We drove around town in his car and had lunch together down on the Strand at Cafe Dolce. I had curry tuna. It was yummy.It's not that Brian and I had a fight. But I don't know if you can call someone your best friend, anymore, if you don't ever see him. Or talk to him.
And I can't downgrade him to an acquaintance. That's rather impersonal.
Brian used to have this crappy car. I think he bought it off our friend, Julia, for $150. Yeah. One hundred and fifty dollars. So, that's about how good it was. But you know, it lasted a long time - through all of our time at SUNY New Paltz. When it rained, the windshield wipers wouldn't run on their own. Brian attached a long piece of thick twine from one end of the windshield wipers. When it rained, he used to roll down the driver's side window and pull the twine to make the wipers work.
This car took us to see String Cheese Incident outside of Rotterdam. It took us back and forth to many a lecture on Philosophy. It winded down nearly every back road in Ulster County at one point or another in search of nothing. I was always in charge of controlling the music and telling Brian stupid stories while he navigated us across towns and through villages.
I miss that car.
You could hear it coming from miles away. I knew when Brian was at my house without even getting off my chair. One time, we got pulled over and Brian got a ticket because of this feature...It made me laugh.
Brian made me laugh.
He's not dead. But now he owns a Mini-Cooper.