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| Flying my kite on the beach at Navarre, Florida. Sept. 2019. Photo by me. |
It is on my calendar, the birthday of the real person behind the character of Oliver, but I rarely check my calendar and I do not have it set for reminders. At four this morning as I sat down to the first cup of coffee he crossed my mind like a falling star. I have a few photos of him at the age I knew him as a boy saved on my phone. I looked through them. His memory grabbed me by the arm to whisper something in my ear and I remembered that his birthday is near. For the sake of privacy I cannot disclose what day it actually occurs.
I remember few birthdays and his one of them even without a whisper to my ear.
He would have turned fifty-years old this year, had he lived past his thirties. His story and the short time I knew and loved him always will break my heart. That broken promise in our youth is something I never let myself forget.
Happy birthday.
In honor of his memory, my novel Dweller On The Boundary is free on Amazon Kindle on Sunday, June 12, 2022 and my short story collection Terminal Wake: Stories of a Boy 1979-1991 is also free the same day on Amazon Kindle. Both of these books contain stories with him and Two Kites In The Wind is one of the hardest stories I ever had to write.
Though I first heard this song performed by Whitney Houston, I prefer the George Benson version. The Greatest Love Of All in memory of "Oliver."
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