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" Friend; a person who knows everything
about you and still likes you." Dr. Charles O. Young.
I can’t remember the first time I saw him, but I do remember the first time
I was aware of his presence in my life. I was sitting in class and in
strolled this kid who quietly took a desk in the back of the room. He
apologized for being late for class and informed the teacher that his alarm
had failed to go off. This occurred three days in a row and on the third day
I made it a point to get aquatinted with this new kid. I found that he lived
on my way home from school. I also learned that his mother had taken a
position at the federal women’s prison and her shift did not end until after
our morning classes started at school. I then decided to take it upon myself
to go by and awaken the new kid and make sure he was not late for school. It
turned out as I stopped by one morning that my new friend asked me to make
him something to eat. I had never thought of that before. I had always
awakened to having my breakfast awaiting me and then felt very guilty that I
had been dragging this new found friend off to school hungry every day. So I
would leave the house a little early, go to my friends, put "Under the
Double Eagle" on the record player and cook him eggs and toast. He never
said so, but I’ll bet there were mornings when he would have loved to throw
me, record player and the eggs out the window.
My friend was a little bigger than most of the kids our age and for some
including me, he was a lot bigger. It was soon established that he was the
bully of the school. Now before you get your knickers in a wad let me
explain. As long as my friend went to our school there was never a bully
there. Every once in a while some new kid or some braggart would try to
assume that position, but if they did they would get a visit from my friend
and would be asked to go a round or two of back alley fist-o-cuffs. I cannot
ever remember one ever taking the position, so I guess my friend did his job
well.
He was a good athlete and had one of the most promising careers of any kid
around those parts, but fate intervened and when fate was done the career
was over even before it had a chance to grow. From then on it was just
trying to raise a family and make a living like so many of us had to do.
His reputation as a fighter was well know around the county where we grew
up. It started after a basketball game with a neighboring high school. One
of the players from the visiting team had called my friend a son of a stray
female dog during the game. The player must have had a small reputation of
his own because after the game my friend looked him up and told him in no
uncertain terms that in no way would he have his mother spoken of in those
terms. When the smoke cleared the visiting player had to make a dental
appointment and my friend spent a few years trying to live down the incident
only to be called out from time to time to prove to some guy who needed, as
some in the old west would do when they heard of a fast gun, to see if my
friend was as good as the stories that were going around. Lucky for my
friend he was whisked off to college before there was serious trouble and
between his new wife and trying to learn something he grew into a good man.
We went our own way after high school and from time to time we would hook
up. It always seemed like we just talked yesterday. But time got away from
us both and we became parents and grand parents. Life hit us from every
direction and somehow we survived this long.
His doctors say they have found a bad thing inside of him. I am sure that he
will take on this opponent just like he has in the past and will fight with
all his might and with whatever is necessary to ward off this thing that has
invaded him. I find myself standing on the sidelines as I did so many years
ago and watch knowing there is nothing I can do. I cannot fight with him or
for him. I pray that he wins this time too. I pray that he beats this
terrible thing down until it cannot get up again.
If a man has one person whom he can call a friend he can consider himself
rich. I can say without reservation that David B. Shields is my friend and
for that I consider myself wealthy. |
