By Brad Listi


LOS ANGELES, CA-


My right arm looks freakishly long in this picture:








The other night my fiancee and I were walking across the street at night and there was a photo on the ground.

I picked it up and kept walking.

The photo had been torn in half.

Part of it had been dropped in the road.

I looked at the photo in the glow of the streetlights and kept walking.










"What is it?" said my fiancee.

"It's a couple of guys," I said.

"What are they doing?" she said.

"A couple of Latino guys," I said. "The photo's been torn in half. They're holding beers and smiling."

There's a third guy in the photo, but he's mostly cut out of the frame.

All we can see is his left arm.

His wristwatch.

He appears to be holding a Corona.








His index finger is extended in an apparent gesture to the camera.

A "number one" sign.

The other two guys are drinking Bud Light, I think.

It's hard to read the label.

Maybe it's something else.

I'm not really sure.

The guy on the far right has a diamond stud in his left ear and is wearing what appears to be a wedding ring.

He's pointing at the camera.

Smiling.

His eyes are a little de-focused.

There's a bit of a shine on his face.








He's wearing short sleeves.

This makes me think that either:

A.) This picture was taken in summertime.

B.) The guy was shit-faced.

or

C.) Both.





Maybe they were someplace tropical.

Someplace humid.

Mexico.

Or the Caribbean.

Or Hawaii.

Or El Salvador.

All three guys are wearing short sleeves.

They appear to be outside, at night.

The guy in the middle is dressed in red.

He looks particularly wasted to me.








His face has a high shine, and his eyes appear a little glassy.

No wedding ring.

A mustache.

Receding hairline.

A shit-eating grin.

He's flashing a peace sign at the camera.

A peace sign is a pretty good indicator of a high blood-alcohol content.

His shirt is tucked in, though.

I don't see any stains.

Maybe that means he was still functional.









In fact, I don't really get the sense that any of the guys in the photo are shit-faced beyond recognition.

For the most part, I think they still have it together.

If anybody in the picture is wasted, though, I'm thinking it's the guy in the red shirt.

And even if he's not wasted, it seems reasonable to assume that he might have been on his way to being wasted.

You can see it in his eyes.

He could turn at any moment.

An unpredictable drunk.

Happy, then dangerous.

Laughing, then sad.

One minute he's dancing on the patio.

The next minute he's throwing bottles at the wall and challenging God to a fight.








Then again, he doesn't appear to be as bad of a drunk as, say, this guy:









And really, that's not even the point.

The point---for me, anyway---is this:

Who the hell are these guys?

What are they doing?

And where?

And who took this photograph?

And why has it been ripped in half?

And why was this half discarded?

And who is on the other half?

Etcetera.









For some reason I'm thinking it was a woman who took the shot.

Or maybe it was a gay man.










If you have any ideas, I'm all ears.

I like old photos.

And found photos.

And things like that.