– Hey man, thanks for giving me a ride. I was kind of surprised when I saw you replied to my Facebook post.

– No problem. Like I said, I’m heading in that direction anyway. I’d love the company and the chance to catch-up.

– What are you heading downtown for?

– I’ve got to meet a guy down there, pick up some stuff.

– Some stuff? What are you a drug dealer now?

– Ha! No, nothing like that. Just picking up a couple crates of records I bought off some guy online. For money I’m working in a warehouse packing orders for a kitchen supply company. Worldwide shipping.

– Oh, I see. That’s pretty good.

– ….

– Well I’m working customer service over at –

– So you’re going to the airport. Got a fancy vacation planned?

– …. No, I’m flying back home to see my mom.

– Oh how is she? I haven’t talked to her in years.

– She’s not doing great, getting old. She took a nasty spill down the stairs last week and broke her hip. She’s getting out of the hospital today and I’ve got to pick her up. Hence the early flight.

– Aw man, I’m sorry. I went through something similar with my mom last year. She didn’t fall or anything, but she kept forgetting where she was putting stuff; you know? Like early onset diabetes or something. She’d put stuff from the fridge into the cupboard and I would walk in to sour milk and rotting food hitting me right in the face; this wall of stench making me gag. And she’s just sitting here in her chair reading the paper like it’s no big deal.

– What’d you do?

– Took her to the doctor’s, ran a bunch of tests, got her on some meds. It’s not going to stop what’s happening, just slow it down. So now I try and visit a little more often to make sure nothing’s spoiling in the cupboards, or that she doesn’t accidentally burn the house down trying to toast her keys.

– Did that happen?

– No, at least not yet. She did lose her keys and we found them in the toaster. Thank God it was unplugged.

– I thought I saw on Facebook that your mom moved to Europe last year.

– ….

– ….

– So what are you going to do about your mom?

– I’m not sure really. It’s one of those things that you don’t really want to think about, your parents getting old. They’re the ones who’ve always had the answers and stuff, right? So to see them in this vulnerable state is just…well…yeah I’ve avoided thinking about it. We’ll have to get her into a home, I guess, because with the broken hip there are way too many stairs in her place now. We’ll have to start scaling things down then; furniture, knick-knacks…don’t know where I’m going to offload a collection of porcelain figurines though.

– Oh you should check out the internet. You can offload just about anything online. You may have to ship them somewhere, but there are collectors looking for everything. Like these records I’m going to pick up; a bunch of 75’s and things. Stuff most people wouldn’t care about and they’d just end up in the garbage; put them online though and you’ll find people like me.

– Yeah, I’ll be sure to check out that internet.

– ….

– So you’re really going to pick up some records right now?

– Yeah why?

– I don’t know, I just thought maybe you were lying about it.

– Really? Why would I lie about something like that?

– I don’t know, who goes to pick up records at five o’clock in the morning? Seemed strange. And lying just seems to be a thing you do sometimes.

– Wait, what do you mean it’s a thing I do sometimes?

– ….

– What’s that mean?

– Nothing, just forget about it.

– No, tell me.

– It’s nothing. It’s in the past, let’s just leave it there. I don’t even know why I brought it up. Tell me more about these records. So are you a collector now?

– Yes I am, and these are some old 75’s. Done. Now let’s get back to your thing.

– I didn’t know records came in 75’s. I thought it was 45’s and 78’s.

– That’s what I said. Now back to your thing.

– Christ, I told you to forget about it. It’s in the past.

– Well you dragged it up to the present, so now’s your chance to get it all off our chest.

– ….

– ….

– How long has it been since we’ve seen each other?

– I’d say about five years.

– Right, so it would’ve been around that time that I started noticing you had this penchant for lying.

– Lying? About what?

– Mostly they would be about these stupid little things that don’t really matter; but add them all up and it got really fucking annoying. So we just slowly stopped calling you.

– We? So this was a group decision? You all collectively got together and said, ‘Hey, let’s cut Seamus out.’?

– Not exactly like that, we didn’t put it to a vote or anything. It just progressed that way.

– And what had I been lying about exactly?

– Stupid shit. Like I’d ask to bum a smoke off you and you’d say you didn’t have any, but then I’d see you pull a pack out later that night. Or someone would suggest we got to a certain bar and you’d say you can’t because you were kicked out; but the next week you’d show up there no problem.

– So I made a few drunken blunders, selfishly hoarding my cigarettes and dodging exes at bars, and you collectively cut me out?

– Things turned. When you got drunk, which was often, you’d pull one of us aside and go on these rants about what you saw ‘beyond the veil,’  and how you were sure the others weren’t who they said they were. You did this to each of us over a couple of months. It was getting more frequent for you to talk like that and it freaked us out.

– Okay. And did any of you think to ask me about it? Sit me down and straight to my face ask what my side of the story was?

– No, no we didn’t. How could we be sure you were telling the truth?

– You’re right, that’s absolutely right. A notorious liar like me how could you ever be sure.

– And we were practically kids at the time. We didn’t know how to deal with that shit. Someone starts acting a little strange you just cut them out. Slash and burn, you know?

– Yeah, I guess.

– I’m not saying what we did was right, but it’s what we did. But I’m glad you gave me a lift today, I wanted to see how you were doing. Looks like you’re doing well for yourself.

– ….

– ….

– Well here’s your drop off. I hope your mom is all right.

– Thanks again for the ride.

– I see you.

– Did you say something?

– I said I’ll see you later.