In thirty-five years, you’re sitting in a chair, casually reading through the news while something mindless is on TV. It’s a lazy Saturday morning and your child is visiting from college, so there’s an actual breakfast made instead of coffee and whatever you normally snatch from the fridge. You’re wondering if there’s anything you forgot to buy at the grocery store when it happens. A notice on the news site you’re browsing pops up. You can’t quite remember what it says, but you remember the most important part. “Misha Collins” or “Jensen Ackles” or “Jared Padalecki” followed by the words some part of you has feared for years, “Has Passed Away.” There might have been other words, such as “Actor” or just “Former Actor” or “Philanthropist” a million other things, but they don’t matter anymore. A choked feeling rises up in you as you swallow down a sob, your mind spinning back decades. Your child, or spouse walks in an asks you what’s wrong, but you just shake your head and get up, heading off to your room, or your office, or your attic. There, carefully nestled in a box, are the ten seasons of Supernatural. The tears slide down your face as you run your fingers across the dusty plastic. Sliding your phone out of your pocket, you dial up an old number. You haven’t used this number in years, it’s just been sitting in your contacts, a memory of a time long past. They pick up on the second ring and you answer their greeting with, “Hi, <url>. It’s <my url>.” Then it all snaps back and they greet you with your favorite nickname and you respond in kind. Then you ask, “Have you heard?” and maybe they didn’t or maybe they did. Either way it isn’t long until you’re crying together, sharing anecdotes of bygone times and well loved antics, of your favorite memories of Misha, Jensen, and Jared. Talking about Supernatural and all the things we once did for that show, the fights, the crazy headcanons, the fics. It’s sad, it hurts, and you feel like you just lost a best friend, but you keep memorializing them like that, because there isn’t any better way. One memory will tick at your mind, however, of something someone once said that brings a rueful smile to your lips. “It’s just a tv show.” Oh, no. It never was just anything.
