Merryknoll Road

Do you remember what happened?
I think it was the rocks we threw at the fence. That’s what must have caused all of it. The way we all stood outside of that man’s small brick house with its short white picket fence. One kid after another throwing dirt-encrusted rocks at the fence turning it brown and messy.

Remember? It was you, me and even Phil, along with a bunch of other neighborhood kids. We all went together. You said, “The man wouldn’t mind. He likes kids.” You seemed pretty sure of yourself.

That’s when things took a turn though. The door of the house flung open and a man with one arm came running out yelling at us for throwing rocks at his fence. He chased us and you yelled “Run!” and we all took off running around the neighborhood trying to get away. Remember how we were all so scared and panicked? We ran for our lives. We felt touchable. Reachable. Was that really true?

We went the wrong direction too and ended up running past Patrick’s old house. Remember that house, it was on the corner, right near where we would go sledding in the winter. We watched the first TV release of George Michael’s Faith music video there. The one with the cool blue jeans.

We got back to our house eventually, about a half a mile down from the man’s house. The man followed us all the way to our front door and had a stern chat with Dad. Dad told us the man lost his arm in Vietnam. And that he wasn’t well. I guess he was sick or something. Is that what Dad was trying to say?

You told me to not be too worried about it. You said, “He’ll get his arm back one day, if not in this life, the life to come.”

What did you mean by that?

You dropped your hat way back up the road as we were running but were too scared to stop and pick it up. What ever happened to it? Did the man just end up taking it? You said, “It’s probably gone now.”

Do you think you will ever get it back?