If I was what Sheldon wanted me to be, or even what he thought I could be… This is what I’d do; I’d come in high above whatever western water. I’d close my eyes and I’d roll over on my back at twenty or twenty-five thousand feet. I’d perform an angular dive towards the bright lights of Burnaby. I’d deal with the Gs, jink left and in a heartbeat I’d pull prone to come in straight and true maybe sixty feet above those big homes near the lake. Thirty feet now and I’d wail over McMansions inland. “Howl Tony, like a TIE fighter” he’d whisper. And I would. Past the old Telus building at Boundary, setting off every car alarm up Kingsway. “Scream East”, he’d urge. Taking into account my speed, he’d (and he’d be specific here) want me to bust the sound barrier only AFTER the intersection at Joyce. This would shatter glass in all of any of the fish joints and the laundromats or the stores and the bars or and especially the dump we used to live in. He’d laugh that maniacal laff of his, and he wouldn’t have to tell me to pull up and roll away. We’d both be a million miles gone before the fuckin’ cops showed up.

Its so fucking difficult to explain to The Kid Talia that these people around in her life, both those that she cares about and the ones that vex her young days and nights, they will not be around forever. While whimsical of late, I’m not talking about DEATH, more the shifting plates of friends, friendship and god help me sweet Jesus, lovers. I met a girl once, lived across the bridge from me in Trail. We were lovers for I think, like, 3 months. Couldn’t pick her out of a lineup today and I doubt she could me. Same deal, I hung out with one dude in the mid 2000s for like, 8 weeks. Hung out at bars, went shopping and the movies together. Narrowly avoided a DUI pulling a U turn in his Taurus on Columbia. “Undue care and attention” (wink). Good guy. Funny guy. Could not tell you his name or what he looks like. If he walked into my office on Monday it would be a brand new relationship. They come and they go and that time can be wildly enjoyable or fraught with peril, but mostly they’ll land somewhere in between.

I’ve met a ton of Talia’s friends because we’re at the TaxiDad stage. I’m not entirely blameless. Recently, my wife told me about a particularly harrowing drunk driving death that affected the entire community up north. It was at that point that I told Talia that no matter what… Anytime, any place, I will come get you. What I MEANT was when she was drinking age. She’s only twelve, but hey, I swore an oath so now its mall trips, sleep overs and PICK ME UP AT 6. NO. 7. NO 8 NOW DAD. NO WAIT… I’m sleeping over for FUCKS SAKE CHILD. Anyway, buddies come and go and who the fuck is this now in the backseat? DAAAad its DeNISE. You’ve MET HER.

Shrug.

I love her friend ____________ though. When they get together, they are complete idiots. Reminds me a lot of Dale and I. Whatever subterranean adolescent girly-girl patois they engage in, it sends them both into paroxysms of teary-eyed laughter, and its a wonder to hear. I’ve given up trying to understand it. Not because I think the humour is beneath me, but because it’s not FOR me. This damnable diction is foreign by default and for good reason. Whatever teenage country these morons live in, my passport from Loserton will in no way grant me passage, so I just wait by the gate ‘till she needs a ride.

I’ll tell you about a country I DO get into tho. One that welcomes me with open arms like some conquering hero back from miles of long. Every five or six years, the men you see pictured manage to end up in the same pub or living room and, for me, it is a fucking riot and a joy rarely experienced.

After graduation in Regina, I rocketed out to Trail/Rossland in BC’s southern interior. Not long after, I was off to Whitehorse, but In that almost 2 year span, these guys became such good pals that they’ll forever be mates. We skated, snowboarded, drank booze and partied and just generally goofed off, and not necessarily in that order. The stories we told tonight were as though I’d spent ten years among them, beers in hand, toes cooling in lake waters under Kootenay skies. First and foremost, they’re all great Dads. Anyway, these guys have, all of them have such razor-sharp wit and stellar comedic timing. Each has the innate ability to blow the dust off of some rare and ancient reference, and drop it into the middle of another’s tale of drunken derring-do circa 1993. Its all I can do to keep up and catch a breath between the laughs. Alone each man is almost TOO funny and with the three of them at a table… Listen, in this… nobody steps on anyone’s story. There are beats and pauses enough where someone can pop in with a last name or clarification but its only ever a redoubt that enhances the tale.

So that’s it for another few years. Now I’m just supposed to go to work on Monday and allow the conversations about Purchase Orders and Closing The Loop and How are the First Few Bites Tasting make me feel like I’m wandering through my days hip deep in setting concrete.

So The Kid Talia might not know it when it is happening or why, and that these friendships we make can be fleeting or forever. I know its confusing for a young mind, ‘cause I had one once. I don’t tell her outright, but I do encourage certain relationships that I see promise in and roll my eyes at those I don’t. Be yourself. Be yourself kid, and wrap your arms around ’em anyway. The stuff that falls out is just stuff you can’t, shouldn’t or don’t wanna carry. They’re for someone else and thats OK. The ones that remain are close to your heart. Like these wildly enjoyable clods are to me.