The tribute was almost done and it was touching. Or, he was pretty sure it was. It covered all the bases anyways; the tough upbringing, the myriad of struggles they faced on the path to success, the list of eventual impressive accomplishments of which there were many, the admirable love and devotion they had for their family and friends, and a short, inspiring paragraph encapsulating the importance of their work and how it will undoubtedly go on to influence people for generations despite their corporeal selves moving onto some other plane which is still TBD depending on their personal belief systems, which he wasn’t quite sure about. He’d have to send someone an email about that.

Unfortunately, there was one issue with his tribute: the subject wasn’t dead yet. They wouldn’t be dead for a while either. But the web traffic he received after Bowie, Prince, and Ali passed was so huge he needed to be prepared. The first one out of the gate always gets the most retweets. 

For more Por­traits of Brief Encoun­ters, look out for the bimonthly fea­ture on sadmag.ca, visit the POBE web­site, or fol­low Cole Now­icki on Insta­gram or Twit­ter.