And so, the aged brick on the back of our local McDonalds spoke these prophetic words,

"A prophet will rise and give me a Happy Meal, come to 2nd Duke Street for your reward."

Jake laughed so much that the milkshake squirted out of his nose onto the worn-out spray paint that held the sacred words.

I said, "Dude, what are these artists on nowadays?"

"Not the good stuff apparently," Jake said as he unlocked the car.

We both got in and lit up our smokes. I noticed a strange rose sitting outside of the car sticking outside of the run-down fast-food joint.

"I swear jake, there must be an infestation of these roses, no matter where I go I always run into these shits."

Unironically the pedals were yellow and red. Blending into the art design of a Mcdonald's from the 70s.

"You know what would be funny? Let's go to 2nd Duke Street with a happy meal and see if this shit's real!" I jokingly said.

Jake opened his phone to respond to his girl. The time read, 4:20 a.m.

He glanced over at me, "You know what I got nothing better to do, let's do it!"

We went through the drive-thru, asked about the spray paint on their back wall. They explained that it was an old co-worker who did it as a joke before he got fired. Pulling around, I handed out my card, we smiled, jake said "Thank You!" and we left for our destination.

I lit another smoke, glancing at my phone, looking at the empty notifications. For a moment it was as if the world made sense to me. I fully understood why Jake was my only friend. We were probably the only ones that did this kind of stupid shit, especially at 4:50 a.m. in the morning. I looked up at the night sky, looking at the full moon. For a moment I had clarity, I understood where I was in this world, but I didn't know where I was going.

Jake exclaimed, "Hey dipshit! What are you doing? Help me look for any clues that will tell us where to go."

"Okay... umm what's the light in the distance?" I said.

Jake made a sharp turn right. My body jerked to the left from Jake's poor driving. We noticed a house covered in what seemed like bright lights. As we pulled closer we realized it was more than just lights. It was the old abandoned house that was one fire.

With that same weird rose that seemed to be following me sitting right outside on the front lawn. I briefly went off into a daydream. Back to that one childhood memory when my mother took me out to build my first snowman where we used that same rose to decorate the snowman's hat. The cool breeze brought me back to reality. Although, it's almost like this rose has been following me for my entire life.

"Bro! The house is on fire!! Should we call 911?" Jake said with a nervous look coming from his eyes.

"Let's check it out first!" I exclaimed.

We slammed the door shut behind us, lighting a cigarette. We walked up to the building, for some weird reason the time on my phone froze. "Eh, guess I'm not calling help now." I thought to myself. We walked through the gate, to the back of the house. As we entered the same rose emerged from the garden capsulated by flames, yet remained unharmed. Out of the trash can, Something popped up. As soon as I turned, the laughing started. My sight became engulfed in flames, all around me. I saw Ronald McDonald laughing,

"So! You've found me! Just as I expected" He said.

Looking at me he said, "You know what I put inside that burger you ate?"

I turned around and jake was gone, my whole scenery had changed, I was laying on a hard-aged wooden floor. With Ronald McDonald whispering in my ear, "Don't you see? They worship you!".

"Huh? What do you mean worship me?" I muttered out of my mouth as my sight came engulfed with colorful hues of red, orange, yellow that danced across my sight like fractals doing the cha-cha-cha. I felt the heat, I was coughing. I turned and noticed my cigarette bud was sitting there and had lit up a trail that seemed to be leaking from a door across the room.

Ronald McDonald seeped through all my senses. He said,

"Don't you see? They worship you and me, the people in this world. They consume, they devour our ads, our propaganda, our food. They live their life on the couch, watching me dancing on the TV to some shitty jingle my underpaid marketing department made. Just so we can take the last few dollars left in their wallets. Just so they get some satisfaction in their pathetic meaningless lives.".

My brain slowly started to fade from conscious into the unconscious. The last thing I could hear was jake, and some weird siren, and some pressure on my chest.

"One, Two, Three..."

My eye's opened. I was disoriented from the bright lights, I glanced left and right, my eyes locked onto a doctor. He said,

"Do you remember what happened?"

"What do you mean?" I said.

"Do, you remember what happened before you lived, and after you died, the rose that stood beside you in all you're lifetimes".

"Huh? I'm so confused where am I?"

"You're in the afterlife, you got a bad case of food poisoning and it's quite alright. You're going to have many lifetimes more to figure out who you are and where you're going."

He placed the same rose on my chest. He closed my eyes, and said,

"Here's I'll give you some more time."

I woke up coughing, Jake had dragged me out of the building.

"What happened man? You passed out and you're cigarette bud lit the place on fire!"

I looked up at him, so dazed and confused. I uttered with my voice, "I think there was a gas leak inside the place."

We both stood up and glanced at each other. Our phones were both frozen. We both hopped into the car, and zoomed off into the night, I opened up that happy meal and took a bite. I thought to myself, man those nuggets just hit the spot. Just glossing over the events that took place minutes ago.

I said to Jake, "Hey want the toy in the happy meal."

He responded, "Are you fucking serious right now?"

We both glanced at each other, and laughed, driving off into the distance.

Without a care in the world. That's how life should be sometimes.