Whole Man

Cover No Man Whole

A span of years ago I traveled to Texas to meet my youngest daughter's husband and step son, just five -- large for his age, but shy for all of that. As he had not accepted Patricia as 'mother', I was hardly of grandfather worth, and "Uncle Ken" didn't fit, as I was known to many others. I told him a name would come to him. For now, I was just someone with whom to walk in the rain.

They were in the midst of unseasonable deluge, and sensible people stayed indoors. So I told of our desert heritage and how to dance in the rain -- and together we went out in bathing suits and tennis shoes -- alone. We talked of many things, drawn by chance and folly -- I allowed to re-live the world through the eyes of wonder. He to allow fears an doubt to wash away. And we invented a manhole game.

Without saying a word I would drift from our obvious course to jump on a manhole cover. Whange! Then back to our exploration of singing flowers and strangely shaped branches and other important stuff. Whange! Soon he followed my example and jumped on them too. Tan - tan plonk! Later he would race to jump first. Easy. There were no cars -- sensible people stayed inside.

"Why do we do that -- no one else does?

"Sounds like a good reason to me."

"Oh, you can tell me."

"Might be something is planning to creep out and we scare them away."

"Monsters or just slimy things?"

"Maybe memories that you don't want to think about."

"Why do men go down there?"

"To help the rain get back to the ocean."

He ran over to a swollen grate and peered inside -- not having made the connection before.

"We'd have a big lake, wouldn't we?" Could a little person ride a boat down there -- you know -- all the way to the ocean?"

"Easier to just say, 'thank you', I think." Whange!

"Kind of like blood, huh? Trish has a book that shows those veins going back to the heart."

"Do you know how to spell 'manhole'?"

"Yup -- 'cover' too"

"What if I told you it should be spelled 'W H OL E'."
Whange!

"Well, papa, if I told people that they wouldn't understand."

"It could be our secret, you know."

"Forever?"

"Yup!"