The Gift
It is hot in Amsterdam, very hot. We chose today to move my 'inheritance' from my friend PJ's house to mine.
It's his entire collection of U2 live tapes. Complete tours. All carefully labelled, going back to the early 80s. I had a similar collection once, but I sold it on a whim and regretted it ever since.
Now I have it back, and more. And it's trite to say I'd rather have my friend back than these tapes. Trite but true.
I will have to make room, build shelves to store it all. And we'll have to get used to seeing those boxes, his handwriting, all over my house.
Two flights up, two flights down. Sweating, wheezing, coughing. That's what you get for smoking and letting yourself go.
On top of the boxes I found a little present, gift wrapped. It had a yellow post-it attached to it. 'Probably bought for C's birthday.'
For me? Really? One look at its contents and I'm quite convinced.
He died 9 days before my 39th birthday. We celebrated soberly, in our restaurant, in our town, with our friends, with a gaping hole where he should have been and the quiet where his loud, obnoxious jokes should have sounded. He would have pissed me off.
I miss him pissing me off.
My hands were shaking as I opened it. Because I'm out of shape, I'm sure.
I read your story and was touched to hear of your friend. While I don't know you or your friend and am a first timer on the site I relate to the fact that you miss your friend. Missing friends is something we have all been through.
I will try not to let it happen too often though.
I can't believe anyone would throw away a U2 collection. You must have had a good reason!
Yes, well, that's not really the issue here now, is it.
What you wrote about the friend you have lost really touched me. I suppose missing out a lot of information made the impact even stronger. I don't want to know (not true really) why you sold your U2 tapes, what did your friend die of or what the present was. But I'd like to know when your birthday was. You were born in 1963, like me weren't you? But I guess it wasn't July 14th, was it?
April 19th.
I came here because I took one of those goofy online quizzes. This one was "Who is your weblog twin?" and you came up as match #1. But when I got here and read this, it really touched me. I lost a dear, dear friend a number of years ago and everything you wrote about your loss rang so true with me. Before he left the city, Bill gave me what he jokingly referred to as my "inheritance." I didn't know how true it would turn out to be. And I'd give it all back in a minute if I could trade it for even an hour of his company. Which is a round-about way of saying that you have my sympathy.
En zo blijft Pimm elke keer weer gemist. Ik mis hem ook, nog steeds. Ik ken hem veel minder goed dan jij, maar ik kan me nog steeds geen u2 concert voorstellen zonder dat ik hem gezien heb. En wat had ie dan wel voor je gekocht?
Wat ie gekocht had is niet relevant.