Ricky was a tall, handsome, young man. He was my brother, and my best friend. He was the guy that was always asking for a dollar, even though he probably already had one. Ricky and I would take drives around town just for the heck of it. We would go to Burger King late at night when his best friend, Jon, was working and see if we could mooch some free food off of him, well I always stayed in the car while Ricky did the talking. I remember he would pay me $5 to do his chores, and I would always tell myself that I would never do it again, but Ricky had his way of convincing. We would go to the car wash and I would help him wash his car and clean and vacuum it out. It's little things like this that I miss the most. May 19th, 2006, My mom and dad took me and 2 of my friends out for my birthday, and Ricky couldn't come because he had to work, and I of course forgave him. May 20th was my birthday, and Ricky didn't have to go into work until later that day. Well, he was out back washing his car and he needed to change the oil, well he also needed the oil, so we went to the ATM to get money out of his account, but his number or something rather wasn't working, so I told him that I would buy it for him. So we go into Auto Zone and of course he picks out the most expensive kind there is, and of course...I buy it. We then went to Karma so I could get a CD I wanted. That was the last place my brother and I ever went together again. When we got back home, he changed his oil in the car, then he had to leave for work. On his way out the door he told me Happy Birthday. I saw Ricky one more time that night at a cook out for maybe 15 minutes, he was on his lunch brake. I stayed up until about 2 o'clock waiting for him to get home, and working on some things for my mom. Well Ricky was supposed to get off at 1 o'clock, so I thought he was either hanging out with some friends, or he had to work over so I didn't wake my mom up. I now wish I would have, but at that time I just thought that if he were out hanging with friends, I didn't want to get him in trouble, but if he were working over, I didn't want to feel stupid and make it seem like a big deal. So I feel that part of Ricky being gone is my fault. Well, we woke up early May 21st, only to find that Ricky's car wasn't parked out front and he wasn't any where to  be found, by family or friends. Dad finally called the Police Department to see if he was there for some reason, and they kept asking him all these questions, then finally told Dad that they had an officer working an accident with Ricky in it. A couple hours later that officer and the town coroner was walking up our driveway. I then knew that I would never see my brother alive again. He was only 17 years old, and I ask myself every day, 'what did he do to deserve this?' He didn't do anything. He was a smart, caring, funny guy that never hurt anybody, so why is he the one to go? It wasn't his fault. If anybody has an answer to that, I would really love to know.

Blaine

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