The King's Rain

"It's time to grow up," He said.

Well, he didn't really say that.  Those words didn't come out of his mouth, but you could tell that's what his defeated spirit was saying.  He'd been at it for over a year.  Fixing to hit his dreams with reality.  A mixture that no alcoholic alive could possibly conjure, let alone consume.  Some doubters say he was doomed from the start, but I believed in him.  I saw the truth for what it is and not for what he was selling it to be.

"I've got a job back there.  Well, they want to talk with me at least.  Said it's for more than minimum wage, so I gotta at least look."

"When?"

"Leaving in 10 days.  She'll be joining me there soon."

Oh yeah, her.  I forgot about her and how she plays into this.  He finally dropped the wall and let someone in.  Weird.  I thought that was one of the most indestructible pieces of work known to mankind, that wall he built.  There was that one, and that's the reason why he was here.  He allowed that one behind the curtain, but when he showed up, she left - and Miller Lite and I helped him back up.  Well, we can't possibly take all the credit.  I think the written word and tumblr helped a bit.  And that's where her comes in. 

He met her there.  Like in nature, this seed started to sprout deep in some dark snarly part of the interwebs.  tumblr to be exact.  At least that's the story he told me, and brothers don't lie to each other, unless you lost their favorite jackknife.  So I went with it as the truth.  "Been talking since May," I remember him saying in the mildly cold truck that night coming back from Poseyville Party Store, "She's from California."  Cahh-lee-foh-nee-ah.  Yes Ah-nuld, that California.

"Fuck dude, it's December!"  The words escaped my mouth like a prisoner from an insane asylum.  He chuckled, "Heh, heh... I know, right?"

"Dad said I can come back and she can move in too.  Until we find a place of our own.  But we won't be long.  Six, eight months....  Just gonna make some money to move back here."

"That's cool."

"Yeah, Dad's wife said she can probably get her a job there too, so...  you know two can save so much more than one."

"Oh absolutely."

I don't quite remember where our conversation trailed from there... it probably encircled a number of different things from baseball to the random things that my kids do...  It doesn't really matter now.  Those are words that get easily erased, when I should etch them in stone.

The ten days has come and gone now, and his chair is cold.  Well, colder than it was when his ass was fitted into it.  He always said it was cold at the house in the Michigan winter.  I always laughed at him.  I'm not laughing now.

I miss that man.  I miss my brother.   

He chased his dreams for over a year and it looks like in the end, his dreams chased him back.  I hope her shows up, and her helps him realize that in his chase he was able to find her, and her is what all his dreams truly are.

I'll be waiting for that email or text saying, "I'm coming home brother" and I'll head to Poseyville Party Store again to buy two cases of our cold friend, Miller Lite.  I will toast your pretty chauffeur as she escorts you down the dirty gravel driveway of mine and I will greet her with a hug and you with a handshake, sir.

May that day come quickly...