RENDEZVOUS WITH SILKY BOB

This is yet another narrative poem fashioned after an O. Henry short story. Like the other poems posted thus far, "After Twenty Years" is quite well known to fans of O. Henry.

The premise of "Rendezvous with Silky Bob" is that two teenage friends decide before parting ways that they will meet exactly twenty years from that exact time (10:00 pm) and that exact place (Big Joe Brady's Restaurant).

Twenty years have passed. It is the evening of the planned meeting, and it is almost 10:00 pm. Will Bob and Jimmy rendezvous as planned? Remember, this is a narrative poem written with close attention to the plot of the O. Henry story, so you now know you had better expect that a surprise ending awaits you. Can you figure out what the surprise/twist will be that only unfolds at the very end of the poem? To this question about discovering the surprise ending before it unfolds, O. Henry was known to drop hints to the very discerning reader. You might like to approach the reading of my narrative poems as you would a detective story. Sometimes hints are subtly dropped your way, and sometimes not.