Because nothing is there. Nothing. We live in this shopping mall Mcmansion suburbia type of lifestyle, but nothing exists, he said. It’s all imagination, a dream. One day, you wake up, he rolled a cigarette with his rough hand. And you’re on the other side.

What’s on the other side? he asked.

Don’t know. I’ve never been. Came close a couple of times. Car accidents, pills. But never been, he told him. Once, when I was a kid, I tried. Swallowed a bottle of painkillers. Taken away in an ambulance. I watched outside the ambulance, from up above, riding to the hospital. Some would call that the third eye. Others would say I was crazy. But I was almost there. Almost on the other side. I think, he drank his coffee. What do you think?

His friend shook his head in disbelief. You never told me that before. Never said you tried to kill yourself. Crazy man.

Yeah. Crazy.