Paper

Jim and John used to read the same local newspaper. They both started submitting articles for a discussion column. Gradually, issue after issue, they got involved in a fierce word fight. Sometimes they could hardly wait for the delivery boy to give them the paper in the morning. Thinking of great arguments and reading the answers became the greatest amusement and goal of their days.

One evening Jim and John walked into the same bar. Soon they spotted each other and their hearts almost stopped beating. They were standing there, staring into each other’s face, trying to make their tongues move. They couldn’t. Not a word got through. Not a word was there to. None of them could think of anything to say. After what felt like ages, Jim turned back and stormed out in the street, running to the newspaper’s building. He dropped a note into the mailbox at the door with just one sentence in it: “I hate you, John.”

Unfortunately for Jim, John never read this. He stayed that night till late in the bar and got seriously drunk. When the bartender told him that they are closing and he should leave, John said to him:

“Dude, I love you. You are so real. You are who I think you are and I don’t have to think about who you are for you to be that man. Now please, call for a taxi.”