Happy Birthday Rory!

Rory

When Rory was three, back in the mid-80s,
whenever we would enter the Chapel Square Mall in downtown New Haven
he would put his hand out towards me
as he started his trot
to the large water fountain next to the escalator.
I would put some change in his hands,
then watch as he ran to the fountain and threw the coins in.
Sometimes I would have to grab the back of his shirt because I feared the momentum of his throw would thrust him into the water.
"What did you wish for, Rory?" I would ask each time, knowing he would never tell me.
He would always look up at me with an innocent smile and say, "Something good."
Rory is not small anymore.
Rory went off to college
and, after 9/11, left college to join the Army.
Now he is off fighting a war in the Middle East.
I walk through the mall a lot since he left; I work nearby.
There are not as many stores there anymore.
There are not as many people there either.
It's kind of a sad mall,
but little kids still throw coins in the fountain.
I remember hanging out with Rory there like it was yesterday.
I can still hear the sounds of packed stores; smell the hot dogs and Orange Julius;
and see the people hustling by with shopping bags.
I miss those days when Rory was my little buddy.
He even listened to what I had to say then as we walked hand-in-hand through downtown New Haven.
I still want to hold him; to protect him and shield him from the ills of the world.
But those days, like the coins Rory tossed in the fountain, are long gone.
He's very much on his own now.
I did toss a coin in the fountain the other day
and I wished for "something good" –
a lot of "something good" actually –
for Rory