Comings & Goings
In May of last year, I wrote that a friend was traveling to Japan for a couple of months and had left some art pieces for me to hold. The primary purpose of his trip was to meet the family of his fiancee. When a couple of months passed and I didn’t hear from him, I thought perhaps he was having such a good time that he decided to extend his visit.
As months passed and still hearing no word from him, I wondered if he had decided to stay in Japan permanently. I wondered if something tragic had happened to him. Or maybe he had returned to the islands with his fiancee and his life had changed in such a way that he no longer had the time or inclination to stop by. It happens sometimes, people come and go in our lives and leave us forever wondering what happened to them. There are many people in my life like that, but I like to think that good things have unfolded for them.
After all this passing of time, my friend recently came home to the islands and stopped by to pay me a visit. He surprised me when he told me that he and his fiancee had tied the knot in Japan. He is now a married man.
While his news was surprising, the real shocker was when he told me that he had been in prison for over four months. Apparently, a friend of his from Colorado had mailed some marijuana inside of a hollow candle and the Japanese authorities found it. Because the amount of marijuana was small and because he cooperated with the police, his sentence was minimal.
All of this probably did not make the best of impressions for his new bride and in-laws, but to their credit, they stood by him throughout the entire ordeal.