by Ronald Louis Peterson

Created on: July 03, 2009   Last Updated: July 04, 2009

"Nooooohh! Don't!" Al shouted as Tommy rushed up from behind the dumpster with an empty wine bottle in his hand that came crashing down with a loud thud on Billy's head. Billy slumped to the ground on his knees, then on his face.

"No! No! He wasn't going to shoot me." Al screamed at a dumbfounded Tommy.

"Then why was he pointing his gun at you, and saying 'it's payback time'?" Tommy shouted back as they both looked at an unconscious Billy, who lay sprawled on the ground with blood flowing from his head and mouth his gun still held tight in his hand.

At that point, the scene from Al's life froze for an instant... just long enough for the present day Al to cry out, "Why? Why?"

The scene then resumed, but not as it actually happened. Now it had a dreamlike quality, with the images looking softer and the voices sounding distant. Billy Bensen began moving, as if he were waking from a good night's sleep. Al and Tommy watched in amazement as Billy sat up. He looked at each quizzically, as if he were trying to understand what he was doing on the ground. They looked at him in stunned silence.

"Why? Why did you kill me? I wasn't ready to die. I saved your life," he reminded Al. "And you... you killed me... for saving his life?" he asked Tommy in amazement.

"I'm sorry. It was an accident," Tommy told Billy with great remorse.

"Accident? No. There are no accidents in this life," said the fisherman, who Tommy and Al had bumped into earlier. He seemed to appear from nowhere, on cue.

"I thought he was about to kill my friend. It was a mistake, an accident," Tommy shouted at the fisherman.

"Maybe it's not what you intended. And, it's a shame that he had to die, but you'd better believe that there's more going on here than you and I know. Believe it, or go crazy trying to make sense of it, he said wistfully as he walked away. You've got to look at the big picture," the fisherman added.

"'Crazy'? Did somebody say 'crazy'?" asked Phil, the chameleon, as he walked up to Al.

"He's dead," Al said, pointing to Billy Bensen. "Tommy killed him. He didn't mean to. Tommy thought Billy was going to shoot me, but he was really just telling me about how he was saving my life because I had saved his," Al explained.

"Pssstt... and you call me crazy? That's crazy," Phil said. "I hate to say 'I told you so' but didn't I just tell you guys 'Our days are numbered' and 'Our last day will come when we least expect it'?" Phil reminded them. "Just ask him. Better yet, I've got a question

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