Dennis was the smartest guy Johnny knew. And still he had ended up homeless and unreachable. Johnny tried. Damn he tried so hard. He even almost failed his medical school exams because he was driving all over the place looking for Dennis.

One night... it was like two or three in the morning. He'd been driving around, not even thinking about the exams. He was about to call it quits for that night at least. He knew he'd be back driving around the next day around noon. He had stopped by the liquor store for a tallboy, well two tallboys, and a bag of hot chips. Johnny was planning to drink that tallboy while driving back home. But as he got out of the convenience store a red convertible came screeching in and a man in a red leather jacket jumped out holding a pistol at him.

The man walked steadily towards him, holding the pistol with both hands straight out in front of him. Johnny didn't even look at the gun really. Stared into his reflection on the sunglasses of the man. When he got close enough Johnny thought he was a goner. But instead the man grabbed Johnny by the shoulder and pushed him down so that he kneeled on the payment. The man pointed the gun straight into his mouth so that Johnny couldn't say anything clearly.

"You're a medical student."

"Ya-eh-heahh" he gargled.

"You have exams. You should go study."

After that night Johnny never went looking for Dennis again. The red convertible and that man with the gun. That was all the sign Johnny needed to know that Dennis was still alive. Still pulling strings somewhere.