“He hung himself in the neighbours garage,” Jordyn said. “They were away on holiday so nobody found him for a week. We figured that he'd finally left us. Bought himself a one way ticket out of town and just fucked off. But he was next door the whole time.” Jordyn leaned against the kitchen counter peeling a small orange in one hand, separating the skin from the flesh with a gentle motion of his thumb. I was sitting at the table breaking down some shake, lukewarm can of Pils at the ready. Beside me Alice was like, “you're fucking joking with me right now,” to Jordyn, and then looked over at me like I was in on it. I just shrugged and Jordyn continued, “I guess he'd broke in through a window in the back of the house and sort of did a low key rampage in there. Trying on all types of clothes, made himself a grilled cheese sandwich with their George Foreman Grill. Left the dishes in the sink. I can imagine the coagulated smear of ketchup on the plate that the detectives probably had to document for the case file.” Jordyn said as he pulled the perfect orange ball of fruit away from the spiral of skin. “The family found him hanging there when they opened the automatic door at the end of their trip. Imagine that, family of four spends two blissful weeks cruising down the west coast and back. They experience California together, hit Big Sur, see a ballgame in LA, I think they even detoured through the Green Monarchs in Idaho in the way back. Just a really nice trip, right? Mom and dad bring back a sweet case of red from Napa and the kids have some innocent fun with some other kids in the communal pool at a motel along some weird interstate that nobody can remember the name of. That flicker of infatuation in their chests, maybe a first kiss, maybe just whispers, lightning bugs outside the window.” Jordyn paused, tilted his head to one side and followed his thread back, then continued, “but yeah, there he was, hanging by a sturdily constructed noose made of coaxial cable and duct tape from an overhead beam.” Jordyn laughed, shook his head, “Jesus fucking Christ, what a dick.” | RIP John Baldessari