Andy arrived on the scene with a glare in his eyes and his hands gripping a baseball bat. Jake bet that Andy would continue his odd behavior of grabbing a baseball bat when angry and he did. It was not like Andy was a baseball player or something, not at all. On the contrary, he hated the game. He had never really played it before as much, just enough to know he hated it.

One time Jake suggested to Andy that they both try it out given his love for the bat of this game but he refused. His reason was that he had tried playing the game before and he found it soul-crushingly boring. So boring in fact that he started hating the game. He never really understood the rules of the game and what rules he did understand made no sense to him. He did not play the game but he loved the bat.

His love for the bat came from his father. Andy was orphaned at an early age and did not really remember what his dad was like. But he did remember having a baseball bat in the house. He remembered swinging the bat with his father. Later on in life, he never found his passion in the game but his love for the bat remained.

Like all the times before, Andy rushed out of the house with a baseball bat, screaming at the top of his lungs. What broke Jake's heart was the fact that he could not recognize the man that was in front of him. Not because the man rolled out of the house in a wheelchair or that he was missing both of his legs. Those were a shock as well but his eyes were different. Jake did not recognize the eyes that this broken man had, those soulless, empty eyes.

"You son of a bitch, what do you want with my daughter? Let her go before I break this bat on your head. Are you with that bastard loan shark? I have already talked with your …. Boss…. Let… her… go…."

When Andy came out of the house, Andy and Jake were both shook at the sight of each other. One friend started shouting at the other until he found it hard to complete his sentences because he was lost in thought. He found it hard to shout at this stranger who by the minute was starting to look more and more familiar. The man that was standing before him who had apparently attacked his daughter felt strangely familiar, friendly even.

The other friend was having a hard time believing if this man really was the same friend he left on Earth five years ago. He was taken aback as he took a step back when the picture became clear. His friend who was more physically active than him was in a wheelchair, with both of his legs missing.

His face drained of life, eyes so empty and stained in the dark that it was a challenge to find the white color in them. He took a moment to take in all of these drastic changes, he had to, then his eyes glistened as his lips threw him a warm smile.

"That's him, dad! He forcefully entered our house and then suddenly picked me up out of nowhere and started calling me little Alice. He says that he knows you and dad he is claiming to be ... uncle ... Ellen's ... Dad!?"

Alice started explaining the situation to her father as she asked for his help. As she was explaining to him about the stranger she noticed a distinct change in his expression. She had to stop and look at her dad again as he had a stunned expression and with eyes searching curiously for something, up and down the stranger's body. She had never seen her father like this before.

His whole body was frozen in place yet his eyes were getting warmer and warmer. A few moments into his daze, the bat dropped from his hands and clanked on the floor as it bounced a few times. His wandering eyes, tore a hole into Jake as he was just standing there as he smiled like an idiot, waiting for him to react.

His eyes first turned misty until the mist condensed into droplets of tears, the tears started rolling down his cheeks as his eyes stopped on Jake's face. The droplets turned to waterfalls like a dam that had been holding on for eternity had finally broken through. The tears slipped past his abysmal eyes, and colorless cold skin, and then disappeared into the jungle that was his scraggly beard.

"Ja... ake? Jake?"

Andy kept staring at his friend in disbelief as the tears sped up. He cleared the lump in his throat and asked the stranger again, to confirm whether what he was seeing at the moment was true or not. To confirm whether the stranger who was now also crying a river really was his long-lost friend.

"Is that you Jake? Is that really you?"

Jake cleaned his face and took a step forward. He gave Andy a huge smile as he greeted an old friend.

"It's good to see you, Andy."

"Is it really you Jake?" Andy was still having a hard time believing. Why would he? How many times had he hallucinated something like this before?

"No, I am the boogeyman! Boo! Haha, kidding!"

Jake laughed a little and tried to make Andy laugh as well but Alice and Andy just looked at his stupid face. Maybe this was the right response at the moment, Jake was after all known for cracking jokes in intense situations. Maybe this joke helped Andy see his friend in him. For now, he was still confused as he was having a hard time believing him, his dead friend, back from the dead, a hard pill to swallow if you ask me.

"Yes, Andy it is me, Jake Ingram. Your friend of twenty years. We became friends when we were 10 years old, even though we met each other in the orphanage when we were nine. It took us a whole year to bond and become friends because for some wild, unknown reason I really hated your face and you mine."

Jake really had no idea what to say at this moment and how to say it. How to make him believe that he really was his long-dead friend. The only idea he could come up with was to give him a little recap of their life together, hoping it would be enough to bring him out of shock and to make him believe.

Andy chuckled a little when Jake talked about them becoming friends because it was true that they both hated each other when they first met. Jake was the popular kid among the other orphans as he had been there the longest and Andy was the new kid on the block. So they obviously butted heads a lot before they learned to trust each other.

Alice was standing on the other side, happy and smiling at this reunion. She saw how her father had reacted which prompted her to take another look at this so-called uncle of hers. As he continued talking her father's expression became softer and softer and a recognition formed in his eyes. It had been a few years since the last time she had seen him but she finally remembered him. He was a little taller and more well-built than she remembered him but he was definitely her uncle.

'Oh, Ellen you have no idea what a surprise you are going to get today. Your father is alive and well standing on our lawn. Wait should I call her right now or wait a little while?'

"We were just boys who knew nothing of the outside world, always left behind when it came to adoption until we grew up ourselves and stopped waiting for someone to come. We went to school and college together. I was a brilliant student and you were just so so. Wandering through school and college I introduced you to your wife and ironically you introduced me to mine."

"I was the best man at your wedding and you at mine. Now that I think about it, it makes you wonder, doesn't it? How socially inept were we that between the two of us we could not find another friend that we trusted. I mean we were not that bad considering we both landed such amazing women, Akari and Sylvia. Those so-called friends are nothing compared to our wives, well those nonexistent friends can go suck on that one."

"What else? umm Oh, our children were fast friends before as they grew up together and I hope they are still friends to this day." Jake looked at Alice as he puts this point forward and Alice smiles as she nods at him to let him know they are still friends.

"Five years ago I left you all alone and disappeared for some reason and I am so very sorry for that. I am sorry that I left you all alone when you needed me the most but I am back now and I promise you that things will be better. I will do my best to make them better."

Andy went through a myriad of emotions and expressions as he heard a recounted version of their life story. He was thinking about the points that Jake raised and had his own thoughts and comments to offer.

'What the hell are you talking about, I was the popular kid at the orphanage. There was some tension at the start, me being the new kid but I adjust very quickly. I even learned some magic tricks and was way ahead of you in popularity, idiot.'

'You were brilliant and I was so so? Ok, I admit my GPA was a little on the lower end than yours but that does not mean that you were better than me.'

'Akari, my love.'

'I wish I could find another friend like you, better even, but the truth is that I could not. I could not find another friend like you who was as sincere, loyal, and trustworthy but you know fingers crossed, I will keep on looking, hehe.'

'I hope things get better as well, I really do. Thanks for coming back, Jake!'

As Andy gave his own thoughts on the matter he felt happy and relieved. After a really long time, he was able to genuinely smile and be happy. It felt like a really heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders.

The tension that left his body had a visible effect on his body. His rigid expression softened as his whole body relaxed and calmed down. Maybe it was the tension leaving his body or just that he was too weak and the whole revelation was a huge shock to him but he slowly closed his eyes.

All the pressure, tension, and fatigue that had built up and had been locked away in his sick and tired body was released at once and he fainted. He was about to fall forward out of his chair but Jake stepped up and caught him.

Andy had aged horribly in the last five years. Jake did not know everything that had happened but he was sure that there were circumstances. He had a lot more white hair on his head and beard. His eyes had sunken in and had horrible dark spots underneath, like a cave inviting you to the endless darkness within. Who could forget the legs or where they used to be before.

The other things may take some time to be put right but he could heal his physical body right now. Jake made a promise to himself to help his friend and his family in every way possible.

ShujaatAmin

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