The Five Wishes of Mr. Murray McBride

by Joe Siple

But this here’s something I’ve learned in my life—what’s right and what’s legal aren’t always the same thing. And when put to it, a man ought to do what’s right. The law be damned.

I was so distant, so old-fashioned, and most of all, so gone, the boys were grown up before I realized what I’d missed.

It feels weird to sit at a computer and write a letter to someone without any paper or pencil. Not quite natural.

But everyone’s so impatient these days. Everything’s right there right when they demand it and it’s turning the human race into a bunch of brainless rats.

“Someone dies—someone you love, now—it’s like they take a little piece of you with them when they leave. Like you lose a little part of yourself the moment they stop breathing.”

And that’s the thing about loving someone: somehow or another, it always ends bad.