Houston

You got something against Houston? I can hear the voices ask. You, so high and mighty, what's the deal?

No, I answer, I don't have anything against Houston.

Some of my best friends live there. And family. I even go to see them sometimes. And the boy remembers those years fondly, including the rains that came as frequently there as they do rarely here.

And I remember those years as a father of a little boy so well, that I would reclaim them if I could.

The Control Center remade. Grocery carts navigating on the rooftops. A robot spinning on a blanket of air. The Bat Cave. Little Joe and the Mercury Redstone. The baby owls in the big F-1 engines. The water slide at the neighborhood pool. Camping on the beach. Strawberry-Rhubarb from the House of Pies. De colores. Trying to find those boys after the service. Wave-wacking in the water. Finding walking sticks in the woods. A boy under an umbrella counting my laps as I ran around the track.

I will take Houston with me into my old age, and it will comfort me.

12:30:23 AM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []  

He Comes Home Saturday

In the wee hours of the night, I lie awake in bed, turning first this way then that, throwing off the covers then pulling them back. It is late. I should be tired, but here I am eyes-wide-open.

The yard outside glows in the orange light of the streetlight.

The hallway inside glows in the blue light of the hard disks.

It is late. It is dark. And grim thoughts fleet thru my mind, held at a bay, because I just don't want to think about them now. Or tomorrow. And I am ashamed.

But that's the way it is, and so let's talk about something else...

It has been three weeks and some since the boy left. Flew on a plane first to Dallas then to Miami then to Managua. Far away it seems. But not so far. Three weeks it's been, and this house seems so quiet. No clinking of his spoon on a cereal bowl in the mornings. No half-whispered phone conversations. Only the two of us here to keep Guinness company.

And Guinness, for his part, walks down the hallway once a day or so and wanders into the boys room, just to see if he is there. Guinness misses him, too.

He comes home Saturday. There will be celebrating and tail-wagging three days from now.

12:15:35 AM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []