It’s easy to lose touch with the people you used to hang out with back in high school. You graduate go to college, get a job, get married and go your separate ways. When I was on the verge of turning 30, 12 years after graduating high school, I was working across the country from where I grew up, hadn’t talked to my best friend, Greg, from high school in probably eight years. No idea what ever happened to him, Last I heard he had graduated college with an engineering degree and set out to get a job designing roads and infrastructure stuff. The last person I expected to see at the park in my small neighborhood where I currently reside.
I was out for an evening stroll, just had to clear my mind and get some fresh air, I was walking through the park near my house, which was normally empty at this hour, and even technically “closed”
I saw a man sitting on a bench and as I got closer to him, I realized he looked kinda familiar.
“Greg? Is that you?” I asked as I approached him. I mean what are the odds that it was, but holy shit he looked just like Greg, literally identical, I was positive it was him. He didn’t reply right away, I don’t think he heard me.
“Greg?” I asked again getting closer, he looked up at me smiling ear to ear. It was definitely Greg.
“Greg! What’s up buddy!!! What are are you doing here?!?” I asked excited to see my old pal, he stared at me with this huge shit eating grin, but didn’t reply. I was thinking typical Greg, playing some sort of joke on me, he was always playing around back in the day. I sat down next to him.
“Man, sorry we lost touch, you know how life is, its good to see you man” I said, Greg turned his head and smiled at me, but once again he didn’t say anything, just smiled.
“Greg man, you can stop playin’ whats up dude, long time no see!” Greg continued to smile, at this point i was starting to get worried, maybe I had Greg confused with some crazy guy at the park, but the resemblance was uncanny.
Starting to feel a little bit uncomfortable “Well it’s good to see you man, Im uhhh gonna get back to the fam” And as I got up and started away, he grabbed my arm. I looked into his smiling eyes and something just wasn’t quite right. And then he spoke.
“Greg is dead” he whispered with a smile
I struggled to get his grip off my arm but he just kept gripping tighter and tighter, to the point where it started to hurt.
“Greg is dead” he said again, this time slightly louder.
“Greg is dead” he said louder “GREG IS DEAD” he screamed at me maniacally laughing at this point. I finally broke free and started running away all the while hearing “GREG IS DEAD” over and over. When I looked back and he was just standing there pointing at me with a huge smile on his face, and then he was gone. Like he vanished into thin air, The next morning I looked up Greg on social media and sure enough he had passed away the week before in a fiery car crash.