#fridayflash: gates

We were talking over the gate; a strange sort of place to have a conversation, if you ask me. But there I was, leaning over it--it was closed. Locked, like the door of my heart, you could say--and he was ruffling his hair, shuffling his feet, and well, talking, while his car was still running--though idling might be the better word. Which was interesting, to say the least, because we'd been in places together before, with no hurry, and my mouth would be running and his would be shut.

"But yeah, it's important," he stressed, though I couldn't see why it was so important for me to open the gate and head off to nowhere with him. Well, not exactly nowhere. There was a job that needed doing, but he needed an extra pair of eyes and hands. Normally, I'd be off in a sec, jumping into his car to head off wherever, but I'd already showered and was in a comfy pair of PJs. You know, the type with the cute little cartoons you wouldn't be caught dead being seen in. Which made me wonder why I'd gone out to see him in them. Probably too startled by that blast of his horn.

No, he didn't say where. He was talking but he wasn't saying much, if you get what I mean. I figured someone must've wanted something badly but he was worried about it. You know, if he'd just called before showing up at my gate, I might've been a little more inclined--or prepared--to go with him. I might even have had something called a key with me. Just saying.

"Find someone else," I said with an unapologetic shrug. I wasn't the only magic user in town and he knew it. I figured he just wanted someone to do the job for free. Because, you know, we were friends. Kind of. He looked a little upset and I almost changed my mind. But the gate was locked, so whatever.

Yeah, I could have magicked my clothes but I can't magic iron, so I'd say that that gate saved my life. How would I know that I'd be the last person to see him alive? I use magic, but I'm not clairvoyant. But well, what's done's done, eh? I'll miss him, maybe.