I, too, would love that elusive adult best friend. Tracy is as close as I come to having a buddy right now. We’re close comrades and she says she finds me fascinating for whatever that’s worth. Instead, I have Tuleana calling me every night hoping I will take her under my wing. I am not disparaging her, but Tuleana’s IQ is like 70 (the mind of a child) and we would not make a good match. She is also prone to fits of insanity and we are all stocked up on crazy around here to coin an often used phrase.
Charlie and dad have been best friends since I was a very little boy. Dad was working at Greene’s Super Drugs before he bought his own pharmacy and Charlie was trying to figure out what was wrong with Horsefly. He would come in and talk to my father about it and get prescriptions filled.
“He’s autistic!” my father told him one day and they formed an instant friendship.
Dad sent him to a doctor and they started to try different medications to ease the symptoms. Charlie was just elated to finally have a word for the condition of his youngest son.
Dad often takes Horsefly bowling to give Charlie a break. For the longest time, I was taking him to the movies on Saturday. We all pitch in to take the load off Charlie. Janice is retired from working at a school for the mentally handicapped. Horsefly sleeps all day so she doesn’t see him until night when Charlie gets home. For some odd reason, she has never been active in what we call Horsefly’s “rounds”. That's always mystified me. She does give Horsefly a bath when he gets up at night, though.
Charlie attributes it to me for Horsefly learning to play like a child and talk. Dad would tell me not to be so rough with the Fly and Charlie would rebuke my father and tell him to let me play. Charlie does a lot for me for exactly this reason. He says I brought Horsefly out of his shell. They thought he was going to be an automaton for the rest of his life.
Horsefly always had the neatest toys and my brother and I loved to come over and play with them. Horsefly would play with them in turn. Something he had never done beforehand. Charlie would stand in the door and smile with marvel.
So? What are we going to do about that elusive adult friend? Do you have to be in the right place and meet the right person? I want to know as well. George of George and the gang fame was my big buddy, but I lost him to alcoholism and prison. George wasn’t exactly a good influence on me as well. We would often be shitfaced before mid afternoon having started drinking early in the day.
2 comments:
Wow, you answered. Thank you! To tell you the truth, I don't even know what these friends do. Charlie and your dad seem to bond over care and feeding of their boys. As you said, with Old George it was the drinking. (Did you and Rosa ever see each other again?) I guess you meet up for lunch (since we aren't rich and won't be doing vacations together) and talk about what has happened since you last saw each other. Problem there is, when ever I do that; they have to tell everyone about it. So I got a talk therapist and she agreed, "It's like lunching with a highly trusted girlfriend...that you just happen to pay for her silence." But I have seen some sci fi where we live in a society where contact is not healthy (Stallone and Bullock had sex in one) and people actually live like you and I do, thru the internet.
And what would a friend do for me? Why do I need this "friend" anyway? I am afraid I will die and no one will notice. Or worse yet, die an agonizing death for days or weeks and no one notice. I kinda have my ex son in law checking in on me. Maybe he has an alarm/calendar on his phone but every few days he DMs me thru Twitter and makes sure I am ok.
But my quest for a friend may be coming to an end. We are adopting a puppy. I know, Jezzy hasn't been gone but a month. And I always swear, no more dogs (remember Mikey?). But I watched this one get conceived! Few can say that! Unspayed female running the neighborhood makes for adult window watching, that's for sure!
Well, I will let you go. Thanks for chatting me up. I rather enjoyed it! <3
Is original George still in prison sir? Any new word about your former neighbor, George?
It seems like you were finding friends ( or starting to,) when you were working at Wal-Mart.
Do you ever smoke pipe tobacco any more? I would think you would enjoy its robustness compared to cigarettes.
Do you enjoy reading science fiction? I tend to think your writing style and computer knowledge could make you a good writer of that genre... perhaps attempting a novel would give you a focus that would excite you? I believe November is "Novel Writing Month" on the Internet. You could make a separate blog to post your chapters.
PipeTobacco
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