Unwelcome Expectation

He died young, as expected. 

For years he’d disappear, then show up out of the deep blue on my doorstep.  He was living it up.  That was his excuse.  Then he’d pull his vanishing act again, looking for drinks and drugs and a way to spend his inheritance loosely with loose women.  But this prodigal wasn’t coming back home.  

I wasn’t surprised to hear that he died.  Or how he died.  Or even that I saw it on the local news.  And I don’t know which is worse: that it happened or that I can’t bring myself to be shocked.