The randomness of existence

For no reason at all, someone from my past has found their way into my memory in the last half hour or so. A schoolfriend, not, by any stretch of the imagination, a close friend, but someone I used to chat to at break and lunchtimes. I don't know really how I came to pal up with him, he wasn't in my form, not even in my house, which made a difference, especially in the first three years at grammar school, because the vast majority of lessons in those years were taken with your own form, and forms were arranged by houses. When we got to the fourth year, though, what would be called Year 10 these days, and began our O-Level courses, the original forms were broken up, and there was far more mixing than in the younger age groups. But even then, Paul wasn't in my form, and I don't remember taking any subjects in the same classes as him. He might have been a friend of a friend, I really can't recall, but whatever the background, we clicked, and became friends. Then, one day just a few weeks before the summer holidays at the end of the fourth year, he was in a P.E. lesson, doing, as we did on dry days in the summer term, athletics on the top field. And he collapsed and died. Totally out of the blue. I don't remember exactly what he died of, but I think an unsuspected heart condition was involved. Paul was gone. At 15. Just like that. Literally, there one day, gone the next. I remember being pretty shocked when I heard about his death, but I don't recall grieving to any great extent. As I say, he wasn't an especially close friend, just someone who was good company.
And after the initial weeks, his memory faded, to the point that I have gone years at a stretch without thinking about him at all. Like ripples on a calm pond, the impact he had on my life soon ebbed away. How different might it have been if he'd lived? There's absolutely no way of knowing, of course. We could have drifted apart as randomly as we'd drifted together, or we could have become closer and been lifelong best friends. My life could have taken a completely different path, or have turned out similarly to where I am now. While I've been thinking about Paul, another memory, specifically about me, has come to mind. When I was 9 or 10, I came within inches of being knocked down by a car. I was out walking on my own, and needed to cross a busy road. I misjudged the approach of one particular car, and just made it onto the far side of the road in time, helped by the driver making an emergency stop. Obviously, that could have been the end of me, there and then. Or I could have been badly injured, to the point of disability. But I was unscathed, and my life continued on its way. By a margin of a few inches. Through the randomness of existence.

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B