Mukilteo Beacon - Your Hometown News Source

I knew a man briefly, once, so long ago now that I have a vague idea of maybe his age, possibly his height. I can’t imagine his name or anything else, except that I knew him for a short time.

He was a nice person to know slightly, and temporarily. Very intelligent, with a dry sense of humor, quite a bit of it self-deprecating, which struck me as just part of his personality but perhaps also a bit situational.

He was embarrassed, you see. He’d been taking a long and lonely road trip, and he popped open a can of beer for the ride. There were some more pops, apparently, enough to make a...