Guitars

“Listen, I just can’t play anymore. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I just can’t do it. I guess it’s got something to do with my nerves, man. I really want to play, but whenever I try to play, Marie just keeps coming up in my mind…and my fingers stop moving.”
Arl set down his guitar and gazed up to the dark sky. The two of us sat together by the bonfire that night, looking up at all of the stars above. I picked up the guitar and strummed up a couple of songs. After an hour had passed, I put it down.
“Let go of her, man. Sometimes we search for somebody to love us, but it doesn’t work out that way. If you let Marie take control over you like this, it’ll destroy you. Can’t you look forward, and hope that something better comes your way?”
Arl gave me a bitter look, which soon faded into a shade of sorrow.
“No, you don’t know what it’s like. I really loved her, and Michael was my friend too.”
It was true. Arl and Michael had known each other for quite a while, and both were just as good on the guitar. But Michael and Marie shared a special connection that Arl had never been able to understand. Arl had been with so many girls that love had begun to seem more like a system to him.