Two Men and a Conversation

"5 years have passed," Jack said.

"Hard to believe, it feels like it's been 50," said Clay. "I can barely remember a time when you weren't by my side... Nor a time when you were talkative and not replying to everything with grunts and silence." 

"Heh."

"Haha, See! You can't even laugh normally. Just 'heh' that and 'heh' this."

"Bleh."

"I know you must be at least as bored as I am. Why don't you bring out a couple of real, live human words?" asked Clay.

"Words are not good," Jack said.

"Why not? I'd know I'd be a lot happier with a book or two in this bunker, hell even some paper and something to write with would be fantastic." 

"They made fun of me." Jack said.

"Who?" 

"Them, on wall," Jack said.

"Oh... girls. Orrr do you mean the poster the girls are on? Because I know I was bullied ferociously by a couple of posters back in my day – or was it posers? Hmmm." 

"Heh," Jack grunted, "People.'"

"I don't know about you, but I think a girl or two could really add some life to this bunker," said Clay, "Almighty universe, meet one of my demands! Magically teleport an entire human being down here... or at the very least, some meager pieces of paper."

"Dead."

"Now we don't know that, there were probably other bunkers." 

"No, they knew about them."

"I 'm sure I'm not the only on who had a secret bunker," said Clay. "Anyways, Mr. One Sound Conversationalist. Why did they laugh at you? " 

"I asked her out." 

"Well how'd you do it? Your are a big guy you know, sometimes that can be intimidating... even for me."

"I... flowers gave to her." 

"That's not bad at all," said Clay. "I can't imagine everybody laughed at you..."

"Berta didn't laugh, she held me. We started seeing each other. We started meeting up after school and learning guitar together, I loved guitar."

"Did you love Berta?"

"N-no, but I wanted to." 

"Oh."

"We were together for a longtime. All the way through university. We both got a job at a local music store... here in this city," Jack said. "... I looked for her when it started."

"I looked for someone special when it started too..." said Clay. "Anyways, what happened?"

"She didn't want me to live with my parents anymore. So we moved in together... this was sophomore year of college," Jack said. "Then she wanted to go on fancier and fancier dates. Then she wanted to go on vacation . Then she wanted me to write her poetry.

"And?"

"I did everything I could to keep her happy. No one had ever been so nice to me as her.Then she wanted me to marry her, and I di-didn't know."

"She asked me to marry her."

"I froze up, mind shut off. Said no."

"I don't know anything about love, she told me that I was her bear, her second half, and some other stuff. But I didn't feel this way, I just enjoyed being with her more than with anyone else. I didn't understand."

"She ran out, so I-I knew she was upset. The next day I brought her flowers, asked h-her out, gave a big long speech asking h-her to forgive me. They laughed, she was silent. She ignored me."

"I'm sorry to hear that. You know, if it makes you feel any better..." said Clay "You're still better at love than I am."

"I doubt that."

"I loved someone and they loved me."

"But we were poor, I didn't want us to be poor."

"I dedicated myself... I worked everyday from morning to night."

"It was finally going to pay off, then she confronted me, 'It's been a year, an entire year of you practically ignoring me. An entire year since you touched me. An entire year since we made love. An entire year since we did so much as have a real conversation. It has to stop... come back to me. We don't need money to be happy."

"I felt like she didn't appreciate all the work I had been doing for our future, I yelled at her... she left."

"Instead of going after her, I continued to work. I reached success... and then it happened and none of it mattered anymore."

"I always meant to get her back after... but then it happened."

"I wasted something good, I threw away her love like it was nothing but a distraction."

"I – it – We couldn't have thought this would happen," Jack said. "It took us all by surprise. They came and claimed and before we had time to take a breath half of us were dead, and the other half was enslaved to them."

"You know, this is the most you've said in all 5 year's I've known you..."

"Yeah."

"Well... it may be their planet now, but we still have our memories."

"They took away so much... but they can't take away our love."

"It'll remain imprinted on our memory, no matter how imperfect it was, and bad at it we were... we will remember it."