Today I received a call from A, who went to law school with me. My friend, variously referred to in this blog as Sq, the specialist in operas set in Egypt involving nude bathing scenes, and Sx, the man with a morbid fear of being poisoned by a snail in a beer bottle and source of an anecdote of a circumstantially singular tort, had not turned up for work or called to say he wouldn’t be in. This was quite out of character.
I was (very) late in to work. I rode past Sq/Sx’s place on the way but couldn’t get in past the perimeter fence of the complex.
Later, A got in as far as the front door and there were further grounds for concern. The security door was not locked, and Sq/x’s mobile could be heard ringing if called. A phoned Sq/x’s parents, who live out of town. No-one in Sydney had a key. Eventually, with the parents’ approval, A returned and the police were called. A forced entry was made.
At about 9.30pm, A rang me. Somewhere in the country, police drove round to break the news. This is not or shouldn’t be about me, but it’s certainly not news I have come to terms with just yet.
Stumbling on melons 
March 6, 2012 at 10:17 am |
A sad story. I’m sorry for your loss. Bits of our pasts keep falling away, and I’m sure we’ll ever get used to it.
March 6, 2012 at 11:41 am |
condolences
March 6, 2012 at 11:43 am |
Thanks, M-H and Tim. I always stumble in offering condolences because anything I can say seems inadequate. I now realise that adequacy is not the point and the simplest words can still offer some kind of comfort.
March 6, 2012 at 1:49 pm |
Any loss is sad but one suffered alone seems especially unsettling.
March 7, 2012 at 2:03 pm |
Victor, it’s not just the alone but the folly of it all and the signs that with the benefit of hindsight seem all too obvious and wondering if some kind of intervention could have stopped things coming to this.
March 7, 2012 at 8:19 pm |
Sorry sounds trite but I am.
March 18, 2012 at 2:02 am |
[…] in the week, D and I drove north of Newcastle for Sq/x‘s funeral. It was held in a church where S*s parents have worshiped for many […]
April 13, 2012 at 1:06 pm |
[…] had a quiet Easter. I missed S*. Easter was a time when we quite often caught up with each other, and some of those occasions […]
March 10, 2015 at 6:19 pm |
[…] was meant to appear automatically a few days ago to mark the 3 years since my friend S/Sx/Sq decided to leave us […]