� P � 2003-12-21 � 9:14 p.m. �
I put a smile on someone's face today.
I called P today... for the first time since I last saw him about four years ago.
It's his birthday today, and I never forget birthdays... it took a little hunting to find him, but I did.
A woman answers:
"Hi may I speak with P, please."
"Just a second...."
"Hi."
"Happy Birthday"
"Thank you...." *hesitation in his voice.*
"You don't know who this is, do you?"
"No, but I know you're young and cute as hell..."
"It's Amanda."
*silence*
"Oh... My.... GOD! *laugh* It isn't MY PANDA-POOH?! I knew young and I knew cute! God, I am good. How are you Hunny?! Wow. I don't know what to say. This is great. It's been so long.... Hmmmm... Damn. This is the best gift."
P... is no less the man that used to live beside me when I went to college. For a while he slept on our couch... and acted as man-servant. We (the girls I lived with and I) called him Uncle P... Or Pet P... I spent many nights not feeling great curled up on the couch with him... or on the floor, my head in his lap. Writing it, it reads strange... almost wrong... But he is probably the purest form of kindness I have ever known in a man, other than my father. I really relied on him for that first year in Ontario... he was a good laugh when I needed it... a hug... good advice. How many nights he and I would sit outside in the summer and talk... he probably knows as much about me as Davy does... with less detail.
The last time I remember seeing him, he stopped by the new house the day I was moving out. Everyone else had gone to Wonderland... and I stayed home to decompress... to pack... and he showed up to take me out for lunch... just he and I... and that's the last time I remember his face.
It made me miss him... the comfort of him... the way he'd laugh... and how on Mondays we'd sit... he at one end of the table... I at the other... both with TONS of work to do... and we'd just stare blankly at our pages until the other would say "wanna go catch a movie?" or "wanna get a bite?"... and how that evolved into the one word... "Beamer?"... It made me miss sitting in the garage drinking Frangelico with him in the middle of the winter.... or the look on his face when people would stop and ask him if he was Bruce Willis.
"You found me... just for a happy birthday?"
"You were always more than great to me, P. A phone call is the least I can do every now and then...."
"Awwww Manda... Your parents did good. I miss you."
"Me too..."
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