99 Stories of God

86. Infidelity

The friendship of the two men was based on eczema. They had terrible eczema, and all they talked about was eczema. They tried everything — creams, shots, diets. The one thing they agreed not to give up, never to give up, was liquor. Liquor was their bond. They drank and talked, talked and drank.

Finally one of them, in such torment and despair over his eczema, sailed his small boat out into the Gulf of Mexico and was never seen again, though the broken boat was eventually recovered.

Going through the suicide’s effects, the surviving friend came across his diary, in which he confessed that he had given up all alcoholic beverages recently and found his skin condition gradually improving. His stratagems and lies concerning this, however, were taking their toll on him, he wrote, and he was feeling more depressed and without hope than ever.