"It's no problem, man. No problem at all." (A dream)

Those last words I said to him were out loud, in the real world, as I slipped back into consciousness.

He had collapsed and was laid up in the hospital and all of us, every one he'd met, had gathered to dance in his honor in a large, open area on campus. We had all done this once, and no one was afraid this time. We were happy, jovial. It's going to be okay. Then we got the word that he was home, and we all gathered up into an Army Deuce And A Half to make the trip out to his country home, navigating the fields and gardens.

We pulled up and we all jumped out and walked through his palatial country house, with flowers hanging in the veranda and old-style wooden doors. I pulled my shirt down over my sidearm, but we were greeted by his aunt and uncle, his uncle wearing his old flap-holster (oddly, on the same side that his arm was missing just above the elbow) from The War. We rounded a corner, and there he was, sitting near a corner of a rather large, open living room. I walked straight to him.

"How're you doing?" I asked as I hugged him. His hug in return felt practiced, but weak; he'd done this before.

"Ten years," he smiled as we broke apart.

"Plenty of time! Get everything done!" I exclaimed, more for myself than for him, gesturing and looking around at his house. I was trying to get used to the fact that the doctors said he only had ten years to live in a hurry. It's one thing to know you're going to die sometime; it's quite another to know how much time you've got left.

"I dunno," he said, starting to break down. "I still gotta pay this off," he indicated around to his country home, "I'm in negative money here, my brother is sick..." He was beginning to lose it, the tears plainly evident in his eyes. I looked back at him, making my decision on the spot.

"It's no problem, man. No problem at all." I meant those words, every last syllable. Even as I woke up from the dream, I realized that I was saying the words aloud to the cacophony of my two angrily-beeping alarm clocks. The words were true, and I understood them.