the boys

They walked through the door yesterday afternoon, sweaty. Summer has returned and there are hurricaine warnings on the Eastern Seaboard where evacuations have been called for in some areas. An old friend's daughter and her husband have evacuated. She sent pictures of their house (near the beach) and wonders what it will look like when they return. She is young and tall and gorgeous and called Chuck by a different name when they were both in diapers, and it doesn't seem that long ago...

The boys had come over to pick up an extra bed stored here. How quickly I forget how tall these young men are, hugging them, one at a time because how often do I see them these days?

Chuck is keeping his place and stays with Natalie and the baby, little Elliot, a few days a week. He is cautious, incautious. Obviously. And his throat was still growly, he was flushed, "I feel better than I did though!" And he smiled his Chuck smile, which I love.

And Ray is at the University and had to get the mattresses loaded on the Yukon quickly because he had a late afternoon American History class. He enjoys his classes. A number of his friends are in the same school--Engineering. None of them went away to college.

And so the boys loaded the mattresses on top and we lashed them down, followed by good byes and drive carefully. Okay...

Dylan broke up with Alayna yesterday. "Be a man about it", I told him, patting him on the back. He knew what I meant: Cut it off cleanly, don't string her along, because nothing hurts worse than a strung along heart, than "being nice" post-breakup. The nicest a person can be is to just let go, move on and then later, when the hurt is past. Then, possibly, civility and friendship. Or, at least civility. (Do people ever get back together after a break-up?)

Nonetheless, I felt bad for her, I did (still do). Just like I felt bad for Jenny after Ray broke up with her, only, I wasn't around for that but out in San Francisco, where I bought her a scarf (having bought all the boy's girlfriends scarves in a shop off Haight, near the place where a friend of mine and I stayed--her cousin's house). Only coming home to find out that they were no longer together. So I took her out for hamburgers and we talked and I gave her the scarf.

Things end. They always do (it is life after all) and it is never easy. What can a mother do? Pray.