The Story Of The Random Duck

He had vague moments of coherence during which times he seemed bitter but otherwise I don't think he really cared. I often find myself wondering where he is and what he's thinking. I remember the last time I saw him. The room was dark, he had covered the windows, but rays of sunlight leaked in and lay here and there on the floor. he was barefoot and dressed in rags. He hadn't shaved either. He was sketching designs on the floor with his finger. We didn't speak. I don't visit him anymore now. Don't think we don't care, of course we do. Our hero, our martyr, our random duck. It's just better this way for everyone.

Elhija left town yesterday. I didn't say good-by, how could I. Meg burned all the letters. I was angry at her for awhile, but I suppose it's just as well. I'm finally starting to get my life back together now. We all are.

I'm telling this story backwards I suppose. Maybe I should start at the beginning. It started back when I was still in school. I met, well, saw at any rate the random duck at a Friday night party in Mexico (Not the country. Mexico was an empty field outside of town south of somebody or another’s property line easy to get to but secluded enough that the police wouldn't bother you there unlike any of the beaches). The random duck couldn't get his act together in school, but man, could he organize a party. I'd seen him in school before, but having problems getting my own act together I never really noticed him before. I noticed him tonight. Not being very popular myself I usually resented people who were and the random duck was the center attraction of the party, but there was something different about him. You could feel it, he was special, he glowed. It wasn't love, it was something different, dangerous, predatory. He reminded me of Lord Bryon. Our eyes met for a moment as I was on my way home. I knew we had an understanding.

Things were different from then on.

We never spoke in school, but I knew he was watching me.

Nobody noticed except for our art teacher Gregor and he wasn't happy about it. Anytime he could get me alone he tried to warn me away from the random duck. That only made the attraction greater. Then one day I found an invitation for a private party in my locker. I pretended to consider not going but after my parents were asleep I walked to Mexico. There were only four people around the bonfire. I only recognized the random duck and the others regarded me suspiciously. The random duck welcomed me warmly as if I was an old friend and after he introduced me to the others they began to grudgingly accept me. They were all from the random ducks old school and people I would have otherwise avoided. Elhija, big and burly, exactly the kind of guy I was most frightened of; Meg, blonde and beautiful, exactly the kind of girl I was jealous of myself being very plain looking; and Beastboy, small and dark with wide black eyes that looked permanently stoned, exactly the kind of guy I always looked down on. We were all different but there was one thing that held us together for those years and that was the random duck, we were all madly in love with him. In that we were frustrated since the only person he loved besides himself was his only living relative, his much older sister. Both his parents had died in a car accident and with a share of the insurance, a moderate inheritance, and a part time job he was able to keep a small apartment above the local bar with Beastboy who was a runaway that had been living in a fishing shack on a beach until the random duck had randomly taken him under his wing like he had the rest of us. When the random duck would get completely drunk he would get a ride to his sister’s house (He hated cars and refused to learn how to drive) and stood outside pouring his heart out to her and wouldn't leave until the police came to drag him off. This was a sad weekly ritual. The rest of the random duck's sexual affections were reserved for young boys. Not being adverse to them myself Sundays after the random duck got off work we would go to the park together and watch the boys play and admire them. We were all very close in those days and all of us were incredibly talented, Elhija was the poet, Meg was an actress, Beastboy was a musician, I was an artist, and the random duck kept us together and made it work.

Beastboy was undoubtedly the random duck's favorite out of all of us. I have to admit he was the real genius. Listening to the music that Gypsy elf could play on his guitar could break your heart. I think that's why it hit the random duck so hard when Beastboy died. It hit everyone in school hard but something in the random duck just snapped, he went berserk. Maybe it was the senselessness of Beastboy's death, he went to sleep one night and just didn't wake up, maybe it with the combined stress of everything else that had happen to him. It's hard to say and he didn't go crazy all at once.

He became obsessed with the idea that he was cursed and went to the city every weekend to get himself "purified" by witch doctors he hunted down. This went on for a couple of months and he began getting into other types of magic. We figured that this was just his way of dealing with his grief and let him be. Even when he claimed that the Dean was possessed by demons (The Dean hated the random duck with a passion and wanted him kicked out of the school) we let it slide. It wasn't until he started hearing voices coming from his toaster oven, and claimed the spirits of several deceased rock stars were trying to kill him that we became seriously worried, but by that time it was way too late. The random duck had become so paranoid that he didn't trust anybody and if any one of us didn't agree with everything he said he'd get so mad that he would lock himself in his bedroom and not come out for a week. Then he started taking drugs again which he had stopped taking when he moved to town, lost his job, and had his witch and warlock friends from the city hanging around all the time. We couldn't get a moment alone with him. The one time I did he started to scream at me incoherently, he was out of his head he wasn't even looking at me just staring at some point over my right shoulder. It was so unnerving I thought he was going to hurt me. Then he stopped, sat down on the floor and cried like a baby. I wiped off the snot that was running down his face. I didn't know what to do I was so confused.

The beginning of the end came when the Dean declared war on the random duck by suspending him from school. He was impossible. Some days when he came in to class he was like a zombie. Other days he seemed possessed by demons himself.

The next day the Dean's car exploded. Three hours later the police came to the random duck's door. He went calmly even a little apologetically. To this day I still don't think he did it. At the hearings he plead insanity it wasn't hard to convince the judge. He wouldn't talk to Meg, Elhija, or me. Gregor was the only one he would talk to and he kept us abreast of the trial. The random duck got off amazingly light, but they did institutionalize him for a time. I was in college when he got out.