Friday surprise

A single man from our neighborhood decided to die last Friday. It was a fine day. The sky's clear, the traffic not as bad for the regular Friday traffic hell. It was a good day to die.

Cab driver told me that the man's only 25. He was clearly envious of the departed's youth. In his mind, if only he can be 25 again. He wouldn't have ended up a cab driver, he said. And he couldn't have fathered five kids from three different women - all of whom he left to his mother.

He proceeded to scratch his balding head. Why would a single man with a job take his life?

We looked at the apartment the man used to live in. We both decided that the man had a decent job. His apartment had flower pots lining the stairs leading up to his floor. From outside, we saw that his curtain's a light shade of green. Why would a man with bright curtains take his life?

His cousin, according to the cab driver was crying earlier. A call center agent who just finished her shift went immediately to check on him, but she came too late. Maybe if she had asked him earlier how he was, it couldn't have happened. Or maybe, if only she didn't call him gay when he said he was sad. Her cousin, the fine young man in his 20's is two hours dead.

It wasn't murder. It wasn't food poisoning. It was suicide without a suicide note. He didn't have to explain why.