My special friend

There's a guy in town they call Crazy Dan. He likes me alot. I'm his only friend.

He showed up on my porch one day talking Greek or gibberish. I couldn't understand him so what's the difference? But I was young and single with little to do so I invited him in.

Every day when I'd get home from work, Dan would be waiting for me. He'd hang around just talking and laughing and sometimes he'd just sit there smiling and quiet while I watched TV or washed dishes or took out the trash. Dan was happy.

When I got ready for bed, I'd show Dan to the door and he'd walk outside and turn the corner and head down the hill at the end of my gravel driveway. I'd lose sight of him and I was never sure just where he went. He just had a way of disappearing like that.

One day I met a lady downtown and fell in love at first sight. I went home with her that night. And laying there while she was sleeping, I wondered if Dan was standing on my porch, waiting.

The next night I went home and he was there. My girl was with me but he didn't care. And she didn't either. At least not at first.

But later, when the baby came, she told me that she didn't want Dan coming around anymore.

I told her I didn't have the heart to get rid of Dan. But she insisted that I be a man. But how do you tell that to someone who doesn't understand a damn word you are saying?

So I took the easy way out. I found us a new house. We hired some folks to come move all of our stuff in the middle of the day. I didn't want Dan to see us leaving. I had a way of disappearing too.

I felt guilty about leaving Dan like that. I was his only friend and I didn't even say goodbye. But raising a kid takes alot of work and love and I put Dan in the back closet of my mind. Life became what everyone calls normal and I watched my daughter grow with pride.

One day I heard a knock at the door. When I opened the door, I found a package laying against it, wrapped in brown paper with my daughter's name written crudely across the front.

I turned it over and on the back it said "dan"

Inside was what looked like a children's book, thin and wide and colorful.

I opened the book to find pictures of slaughtered sheep and men with masks, airplane crashes, and cut and paste letters that spelled nothing at all. There were pictures of farm machinery and abandoned restaurants. On the last page was a picture of Dan, sitting on our new front porch, grinning like crazy and holding my little girl. He was wearing my shirt.

Beside him, lay my beautiful wife's head.

I ran up stairs to check on my daughter but she wasn't there. I called for my wife but there was no answer. Then suddenly, I saw Dan, standing right in front of me. In the mirror.