 September 17, 1994 The first time I visited Everett, my birthfather, I was greeted by this banner, as well as a cake, that both exclaimed, "IT'S A BOY!" At this gathering I also met several cousins and a great-uncle.
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Look What Followed Me Home! I visited Everett and his wife in September, 1994. Always the 'outdoors man' he insisted on taking me fishing. If any two men could me any different it would be the two of us. My idea of 'roughing it' is when I have to get up and walk across the living room to change a channel. Or, heaven forbid, the air conditioning is out and I have to use a fan. As far as I am concerned nature is best viewed through the window of an air conditioned home or tour bus. So this city boy goes fishing with his birthfather. I asked him things like, "Will we catch those square breaded fish like on the sandwiches at McDonald's?" and "Is that water? I've seen pictures in books." It was all that master fisherman could do to not strangle me! Note: I was the only one to catch a fish. We've been fishing twice. I've caught a fish both times. He caught a cold. I, however, tossed the finned fellow back in the lake. It wasn't square. Upon our return from the fishing trip I walked in on a huge banner reading 'IT'S A BOY!" and a cake decorated with a tennis shoe and also boasting the same. An afternoon party was planned where I met several 'new' relatives, including a great-uncle who was a brother to my birth father's late father. One of the cousins presented me with a fishing pole which was wrapped, of course, in blue paper covered in cherubs proclaiming the now redundant "IT'S A BOY!" Two-and-a-half weeks later my girlfriend at the time and I boarded a plane for Texas to meet two more of my sisters, Carletta and Sandra. Everett drove down to be with us. Carletta and I, of all my siblings, share the same intensity of emotion. Everything we feel is always ten times greater than that of the average person (or so it seems). We spent the entire weekend either laughing or crying or any combination of the two. My first evening there I was so over-come with emotion that I had to find solace in the humid Texas night air (which is just like the humid Texas day air except not as bright). Mary joined me as I perched myself on the tailgate of my brother-in-law's truck (it's a law that everyone must own a truck at some point of their life in Texas) . She stood before me and held me close asking, "How do you feel?" "Alive," I said. "For the first time." Mary stroked my hair as I listened to the rhythm of her heart while I attempted to process all that had happened up to that point. I was overcome with contentment...the first symptom of being 'alive'. There are times, mostly at night when the days responsibilities have fallen behind and the quietness embraces me with deafening silence, when I wish I were still there, on that tailgate, with her. But, as life has a way of spinning on in its greased groove, that moment, and all that I shared with her, has gone. But the memories will always linger. And no one will ever take that away from me. I won't allow it. |
