Compline

   
           "Well, Katy-did, there's a full moon out tonight.  It's supposed to be a fine day tomorrow and it's been a while since I went out on Buckeye Lake.  I think it just may be a good mornin' for fishin.'"
           I quickly glanced up at my grandpa, eager for his next words. The other grandchildren tumbled about in various alcoves of the old Craftsman style home. My place was in the bright warmth of the kitchen near our family's patriarch. This evening I sat playing jacks on the linoleum while he fiddled with his tobacco, his thick calloused fingers deftly pinching the dried leaves. Tufts of white hair spilled over the sleeveless t-shirt that he wore on hot summer nights. I was his first grandchild, his favorite, the apple of his eye, and he spoiled me shamelessly. I adored him.

The Dragonfly

          This past Fourth of July I watched the fireworks in Algood from my upstairs balcony with two of my children. While we enjoyed the show, my middle child was sweating in the Georgia heat. He was finishing airborne school at Ft. Benning (he's an ROTC cadet at Tennessee Tech). He called the next day to say that family members were allowed to come to watch the jumps.

          Years ago I cringed as I watched a friend take my then two-year old firstborn on a Ferris wheel. I don't know why this child thought that I wanted to watch him jump out of a perfectly safe airplane. As his man voice asked the question, all I heard was the little boy voice asking if he could open his Christmas presents early. Where did the years go? When exactly did he grow up?