What fell out surprised him, though it shouldn't have. Out of the handkerchief fell a small ring. His alter ego offered the ring to him, "go ahead, look at it closer." He took the ring, and examined it, knowing well what he would find, yet not believing his eyes when he found it. Inside, the ring was inscribed "My promise to you," with his and her initials, and a date...a date he had promised himself he would do his best to forget. And yet, there was no denying it, it had come back to him, in the form of a ring, being held by a younger version of himself. He struggled to find his voice, then asked "why have you come here?" The young man replied, "I have come here, seeking my past, so that I can find my destiny." He laughed, a bitter laugh, bitter like that shot of cheap tequila so many years ago, that had set in motion the events that would bring him to meet this young man who could only be his son in a dark street in Seattle. He asked the young man, "do you really wish this to be your destiny? I am sure you can do much better." The young man replied, "no. I am sure I can do a lot worse...Father."
Father-a word he never had associated with himself drunk or sober. He slowly turned away from the young man and the evidence of a promise he held in his open hand. For a brief moment in time he was taken back to when he was a young man of thirty and she an average looking woman of 22. Nothing to claim bragging rights with your buddies, but, not bad looking either. Rain, rain, rain, that's all the hell it did in Seattle and he was glad to leave it behind. Looking back over his shoulder he imagined the young man to be in his early twenties. Still wet behind the ears and not yet cynical about the world around him. That'll come in time he told himself, it always does. At 52, years of hard drinking and hard living had added 15 years to his weathered, wrinkled face. As they say, time was not good to him. Get outta here, boy he yelled at the young man. I gotta lock up, tomorrows Saturday, the busiest day of the week and all the fat old biddies with cigarettes hanging from their lips and the young mothers who never heard the phrase, control your kids, will come storming through those doors. The young man made his way to the double doors, pushed one half-way open, then stopped and turned and said.....