Every time Natalie was talking about moving in with Nathan, she put in a lot of thought to attract the energy into making it come true. I hoped she would move in with Nathan because it would make us both happy. Then one day, she showed me pictures on file from her laptop. Natalie had a ton of pictures on her laptop. When the photos got to the letter "L", I spotted a white 2 door lincoln parked in the driveway in the background of a neighborhood in which she used to live in 16 years ago before she moved to Durango. I realed there was something mighty familiar about that car...but where? I studdied the photo really closely as I zoomed in on the image and I realized, it was Gonzo. After 20 years apart, I hadn't seen him since Impa went missing. There was more for me to know and I wondered if she knew Impa, my friend that went missing. As I viewed more of her pictures, I found the answer to my questions. She had images of Impa and what I saw, disturbed me. Impa sat dead in a pile of weeds withh the motor still intact, but the fluids all gone. Footages of what was left of him gave me nightmares. There was stuff in the trunk that wasn't there before and the windows were missing. The seats inside were ruined. Impa's dead body in the photo was just there rotting in the weeds. I had a moment of silence for my friend, Impa. Natalie told me who owned te farm and there was a guy was a local was in really bad debt before his divorce. He cheated people that bought cars at a dealership and was caught. He had to pack up and leave town with three kids, abandoning his ranch and home behind. There was only 5 horses and a mule that were out in the field by themselves. She shared some horse pictures that I got to see. Natalie would visit, do homework from college class, and relax with the horses. The horses weren't starving or anything because they had grass to eat and water to drink. They were just fine. I had a lot of memories of Gonzo and Impa together hanging out with me. I remembered the weekends, the things we'd do and I remembered all the jokes Impa told us when we were sad or bored our of our hoods...all for once last time.

I was still thankful that I had Gonzo and Robin as friends. Although, Gonzo had never met Robin before and by looking at Natalie, felt sympathy for me on my loss. I admired her feelings and I could see that she had a heart for my friend. I was glad she got a picture of Impa so I could see and feel better about what happened to him. A little later on our way to get drinks, Natalie was telling us all that she would feel happier living with Nathan since she had enough of Durango and all the things that were going on like the time she quit a program she was sick of called "Community Connections" because her caretaker kept walking in her apartment without knocking and another example the transit changed her bus stop. I personally believed she would be much better if she moved back down and with Nathan so he wouldn't have to waste gallons of gasoline going to Durango. I had a prediction she would and maybe later in 2018.

Later that day while I was at the drive in at Taco Bell, I happened to pull up to an old two door Lincoln that was white. He looked into the rearview mirror and seemed to recognize me. He asked if it was me and I replied it was recognizing him almost right away. It was Gonzo. He and I talked while we waited for our order and the line was long enough for us to catch up on all the things that we were doing these days. It was great to see him and he asked me about Impa...if I ever saw him after he disappeared. I told him exactly what happened to Impa and about Natalie having those pictures. Gonzo couldn't believe it either and he felt sympathy for poor Impa. He was heartbroken to hear it. Gonzo asked me how I've been holding up and I replied that I was handling it in a not so good but I'd pull through.Then, that's when I knew, I had to ask the same. Gonzo told me he would need some time to cope with his feelings. Impa was a good friend to both of us. We now swapped addresses so we could write to ech other or even visit when we wanted to hang out. Interestingly enough, Gonzo lived in the same neighborhood as Natalie's mother and it was only a few houses down. Gonzo's order was up and so we both said our see-you-later words and then He zoomed off.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Later that day, I ran into Robin (Mister Rockin' Robin Finns, as I like to call him) while I was on my way to Safeway and got caught in another conversation with him. I told him that I found out that I lost a close friend a long time ago since he lost his sister recently. It all happened in Toas in a tragic semi accident. I was telling it how I remembered it. Knowing Robin, it kind of over-sympathatic and cried so much that he wanted to hear more. He wasn't exactly a cowardly red engine either and it was difficult to scare him, but I got him interested this time. His cowardly grille took me back in time 1985. It was just after watching "John Carpender's Christine" at the drive thru for the fourth time. But when that time when "Beetle juice" came to theaters, he totally moistened himself just as bad as "Creature" or even "Zombie Lake" or "Biohazard". Gonzo was all shook up that it was Impa's idea to go out in the woods to smoke reefer to calm down. Gonzo was so scared that he actually turned pink. He looked like Barbie's pink Lincoln from an Elvis Persley movie production. But Robin was so distraught that he gave me his deep sympathy and he remembered watching "Biohazard" for the sixth time and it didn't get any better for him on how scary it was. He asked me if I ever needed anything like a talk about to make me feel better, just to go to see him.

When I finished telling him about the death of Impa, Robin bawled for an hour as he tried to get ahold of himself. When he did, he apologized for acting embarrassingly cathartic. Robin was over-sentamental that he took things too far. He's what I described as having actor's syndrome. Someone with too much emotion that needed to be put at work on a set. I almost fell asleep listening to Robin go on and on in a conversation. It was almost getting late. Finally, Robin was done talking to me and thankfully he needed to get home too. We simply said a short good-bye and we both needed to get home.

By the time I got home, it was already an hour passed 10 PM. I was tired from Robin wasting my time by talking for so long. Once that I was let in, I had a seat on the couch and dozed off. The very next morning, I wrestled Ol' Reliable to get a move on so Nathan could test drive him around the block, I had to tell him I spent most of the month taking Jan, Nathan, and Natalie to town every night and that it was his turn to be driven. That seemed to put a lid on it! So without any guff, fuss, or cuss, Ol' Reliable obeyed me. I was still the leader and as long as I was on the property, I had control.

When Ol' Reliable got home shortly around the block, I got a chance to read Randy's old books. The time was already 5:23 PM and Jan just got home from work. In about 30 minutes, she would be ready to get drinks and go do errands. Tonight was about Ol' Reliable and it was his turn to take the three to town. And as for me, I got to 5 of Randy's books that he kept in the bathroom. I really enjoyed the fantasy world of quests and knights as I stayed home to relax. It was quiet enough by the time I finished all of the books, I turned on the TV to the VELOCITY channel and I watched some TV. It was a nice evening that night and having a break from town has never looked this good.