Soldier

My son 23 now looked little younger than I did, and the ruse was failing by now anyway. When she left me he was in college studying to become a lawyer. My salary was enough with saving to send him to whatever school he wished, and for me paying the alimony was a delight. They would be fine, she was hurt, and she had every right, but she didnt know, and never would..and her pain at discovering the truth, would forever be averted. My son was different, it was hard to turn away from him, harder than anything I had ever done. For a time, I cursed Russell, and myself for believing that I could be anything like a normal man, that someone like me could have even believed that he could even try. Until one evening in 1987 on a park bench, the same bench that I met Russell at almost 35 years before, he came walking up to me, like a spectre out of a distant memory. He sat down beside me like he had all those years ago, he was unchanged, he was the same. For a moment he was caught off gaurd by the grey hair and the forced stoop. He smiled, and almost chuckled.."You've changed." he said. We laughed, and again I felt like some bit of the pain, was thrown to the pigeons on that bench, like some little bit of it was taken away, replaced by the memories. I realized then that cursing him was wrong, he gave me my life. The birth of my son, the love I thought that I could never possess, and more importantly, my humanity. We talked then, about goings and comings, about the weather, and the Tigers, but this time instead of asking me whether or not I saw things...he simply said.."Are you ready?"

John paused in his writing and thought about how they must have looked that day. Unchanged, undimmed by time. All the world had changed around them, yet they had remained the same. The both looked tired, as if they had been working or fighting for a very long time, but something in their bearing made them appear strong, like the trees they sat beside, like the stone beneath their feet. They drew no looks from those walking by. Because they looked no different than any other inhabitants of the park that day. In truth they were not, but had any other there heard their story, they would have been looked at very differently indeed.He remembered Russell turning toward him, with his eyes down, genuinely saddened by what had happened since that day 35 years past. He hurt too, but for different reasons, and as he lost himself to his memories, Russell's words came back to him. Maybe it was being in the same place where it had happened, or maybe it was another side effect of his newfound abilities, but he recalled every word in clarity.

" Im sorry you have been left in the dark all these years John, but I..I did it because you needed something to hang on to, something to call your own." he said as he looked up to John "I understand you had a son.".

John nodded smiling. "Yeah, his name is Jack. he is 26 now, he looks older than I do."

"You still see him?" Russ said as he looked down to the pigeons darting around their feet.

"Yeah, sometimes but..he doesnt really know it.