The Life And Times of Earl F. Ventures And Scooter Good-Dirt

Two boys who had never intended to become close friends keep being pushed together by circumstances and coincidences until their lives become inextricably entwined; and no matter how many times they drift apart, their worlds seem to keep intersecting. Oddly, the healthier of the two, the one who everyone had thought would outlive the other, passes away. Only then does the entire story seem to download itself onto the surviving man (now in his early 60s).
He had originally thought just to take some notes, perhaps several pages of them, just to make sure he and the people around him did not forget the key events of this story; but then the story kept taking on a life of it's own as detail after detail came rushing to the forefront of the surviving child's mind.