Today I received a phone call informing me that a teenager, who I got to know fairly well at my first job, died.  It was completely shocking.  Less than a year ago I was sitting at a table playing checkers with him as we discussed politics and his desire to become an archeologist.  He still had a year left of High School.  He was a little eccentric and somewhat of a misfit, but he had brains, passion, and was just crazy enough that he could have been some kind of positive catalyst or an anarchist.  He was walking to the mall with his ipod on and got hit by a car.  Apparently his viewing was yesterday.  It’s like I found this out in a vaccuum and there is nowhere to respond. 

 

A crucial piece of this story concerns the messenger of this news.  A kid who would also play checkers, went to the teen center looking for me in order to inform me of his friend’s passing.  He commented that I "really knew him".  Now this was especially surprising, because this guy was extremely quiet, shy, not exactly the most intelligent and would concede to an uno game with me only after I convinced him it would be fun.  As quiet as he was, he was observing more than I realized. 

 

I suppose this is my response of grief.