Dear J-
All quiet on the western front tonight; after the brief disorientation that accompanies having the very early morning free to do what you want, we got up and headed north to collect our offspring. By the time we got there she was nowhere to be found, the house a blissful domestic tranquility: one walking the dog, one cooking breakfast, kids quietly at play in secret motions upstairs. figgy and her cousin are thick as thieves, darting off in the way close relations can, stranger friends brought close by circumstance and blood.
I remember all the road trips we took together; my parents were firmly convinced that the more hands on the wheel, the shorter the drive (although in typical fashion, they’d thereupon insist on doing all the driving for their guests), which meant long hours with kids you should know better. I’d learn all about my cousins on those trips; we lived in relative isolation from the rest of the family until 1987, when my dad’s much younger brother and sister* got married and started having kids of their own. So these were kids you’d see for a week at a time, just enough to get fascinated but not sick, and provide my brother and me with enough conversation for the next few months on just how cool they were.
There are so many stories we made up that we’d never breathe a word of to our respective parents and I’m sure that figgy’s started to get into that as well. They play games I’m not privy to, make obscure rules that no doubt result in whispers and giggling, just as we did, just as our parents and theirs did spinning away in time beyond reckoning. You have to let it be; part of growing up is standing on your own, and I could no longer stand in it’s path than stop a train with strength alone.
Mike
* With my dad as a sponsor, my grandparents came over in 1981, followed by my uncle and aunt a year later; it wasn’t until 1991 that the process was somewhat complete with my dad’s other sister and husband coming over with their youngest — the older son took another few years. Meanwhile much of the family on my mom’s side was established in St. Louis.