She was my best friend. Beautiful, smart and full of life. She left our home town before me for Melbourne, I followed soon after to Sydney. She was engaged to the handsome son of a wealthy family. Happy and her future planned out.
I decide to visit her in Melbourne with my Spanish lover. Annette brings a friend, and the four of us hit the town. Drinks! Coke! Dinner in a seedy part of town, Someone (???) suggests we run out on the bill, so they all take off and leave me. I do not have enough cash, so at the counter, I decide to run too.
A bunch of young gangsters chase me down an alley….dead-end. Knife to the throat and hand-gun to the chest. I’m still cocky despite a few punches, when the police turn up. Something is strange, the police are on my side. They tell the thugs to leave me and not press charges. WTF?
I’m led around the corner to discover why. Annette is dead. Run-over by a speeding police car without a siren. Chasing us for our $80 meal bill. The police are worried that this will get out. It never does.
I die inside.
***I have had several friends die in my life. Mostly drugs and misadventure. I have tried to learn from their loss each time. Nothing is a more potent message then – the end***