When you put time and people together you get a funny, curious thing.
I wrote this story a few years ago on a gray, dank, overcast day not unlike today. I was sitting in my library, talking to this guy on the phone. He was in his office in Texas and I was calling him sir.
He visited later. Lauren and I bought him a lemonade at Toomer’s on a warm, rainy afternoon. He was hoping to enroll in the graduate program at Auburn. First, for him, there was Afghanistan. He came home, and then he finally came home to Auburn. He moved in downtown. We became friends. Time expanded, because no one needed to notice. He helped haul an appliance to our house. He became Lauren’s student. There were ballgames and tailgates and movies and cookouts and all of the other little things you take stock of later.
We met his girlfriend. We were there when he proposed. The four of us took a long trip together. We got invited to the wedding and then I was a part of the wedding and suddenly there was the wedding.
Time contracted, because suddenly one had to count. Now he has graduated. We dined with his proud parents last night. The new grad and his wife stayed with us this weekend because their lives are in boxes. After next week it is back to the Army.
Lauren and I had breakfast with them and then said goodbye this morning. This was harder than we all expected. He joked I had to update this story to reflect that he was a proper Auburn man. He was right, though the update was long overdue. So I have updated it; proudly, because the circumstance warranted it because he’s long been an Auburn man, sadly because that means they are on to their next next chapter, Alaska in January.
I called him sir back then out of courtesy, because we were strangers. I call him sir now, from time to time, in the more truly genuine sense, out of respect.
When you put time and people together you get a funny, curious thing.
We miss our friends, Jessica and Adam, already.
