I was getting sex regularly and learning all there was to know about the woman I was more and more certain I would marry.It was a Friday evening that ... got a shock that would cause me to change my thinking about our future. Rita and I had finished our dinner and had cleaned up the dishes. I'd poured each of us another glass of wine and we had retired to the living room. Just like an old married couple I thought to myself. We'd barely got seated when there was a banging on the door. I couldn't. The atypical trees have grown on a curiously twisted, almost haphazardly corkscrewed trajectory.. Branching palm trees, at that. Is that even a thing? No. Not branching. They’ve got something else on them at the top. Some kind of leafy vine. I really wish I had Ginger here. She could answer so much.Uh-oh… That’s new. Who the fuck is Ginger? I don’t even have to close my eyes to see her face, but when I think of her it’s like remembering into the future. My thoughts hurt. I try to. So is mine! One afternoon I'm sitting in my recliner, laid back with my feet up, watching tv under a warm blanket. Beth is reading a book on the sofa. We aren't talking, we ran out of stuff to say days ago. But, she takes good care of me. Keeps me clean, prepares delicious dinners for me, and isn't annoying. Overall, I'm satisfied with her. Except, I could use a helping hand when she bathes me! The doorbell rings and she goes to answer the door. I can hear voices but can't make out who is here.. "Calm down – tell me what happened." Your s-son ... he came home from work early t-today ... and shot ... he shot himself in the head."Time stopped – I remember dust motes in the air, hanging motionless in the sunlight coming through the windows, fragmented into shafts by the trees outside. Christie was standing next to me, eternally held in the horror of that moment. She had grown to care for Johnny while he stayed with us, to think of him almost as a step-son, although they were the same age.