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Dad and the Red Light


by Bill Yarrow


My father is twenty-two years old. He's
stopped at a light at Broad and Market.
He sees a man in a tan jacket start to cross
in front of him. All of a sudden, the man
disappears. The light turns green. Confused,
my father gets out and walks to the front
of his car. A guy is face down on the ground,
his head wedged in front of the passenger wheel.
He selected my father as his agent of suicide.

I've been held hostage by this story ever since
I was told it when I was fourteen or so. My dad
was trying to teach me the importance of checking
things out. Then I saw, all his life, wannabe suicides
flit towards him like moths. He saved them all.
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