Only Time Is

There was a time when Jim and Larry were the best of friends; brothers in a time when friendships went beyond blood, but two boys forged a bond they promised would never be broken.

Years passed. Age has a way of changing people and attitudes, and new roads are walked with a purpose.

So it was in a courtroom where fate would reunite Jim and Larry but for all the wrong reasons.

Jim was sentenced to life in prison without parole for a triple homicide during a failed robbery of a local mom and pop corner grocery store. He used a Remington twelve gauge, semi-automatic.

Larry, the sentencing judge, could only shake his head and then said, “Were it not for the years past, I would have sentenced you to death by lethal injection. Sometimes in life, we still have to remember the good we have seen, and still see in people.”

Larry stood and left the courtroom as Jim was led by a deputy sheriff back to the county jail to await transport to the state prison.

Jim knew, that even though they had walked separate roads, that deep within himself, he knew his friendship with Larry was over.

And that forever isn’t forever after all.