What Happened to Barry?

I still remember the crazy look on Jim's face, and how red and breathless he was, when he stumbled into the bar that night. "Barry's dead!" he cried, in anguish. "Oh my God, you guys! He's dead!" He collapsed on the floor and covered his face with his hands, sobbing. I felt a sick knot in my stomach.

I still remember Carly crying at the funeral, she shook softly in the chair in front of me for the entire hour. I remember the strange, wavering light of the candle in the dim room. It was one of two things on the flat, barren table at the front of the room. The other was lonely wooden frame with a graduation photo of Barry. It was the only photo they could find, and it had this grin that was so terribly innappropriate. Next to the table was the lecturn where the minister delivered somber, well-meaning, ineffective comfort. There was nothing else at the front of the room, no coffin. They never found the body. The Coast Guard searched the bay for three days.

I still remember Carly the night before she married Derek. She was drunk and crying on my shoulder that Barry was the one for her, that she was just settling for Derek. Her eyes were bloodshoot in all of her wedding photos.

I still remember the night, before any of these things happened, when Barry told me what he was going to do. He had a little money. He had a friend in Mexico. He'd write letters, but he'd never be able to come back.

I still remember the letter I got from Barry the year Carly and Derek divorced after fourteen years of marriage. "I just want to come home. You've got to help me figure out how I can undo this thing. You're the only one who knows. If I don't come home soon, I don't know what I'll do." I never answered that letter. I never got another one.

Comments

[toadman]

I know what happened to Barry, he owns a bar in Mazatlan. I think he's nuts for wanting to come back.

[karindira]

Oooh, I like this. I want to steal it, use it as the opening for something bigger.