Rebel Without a Clue

He was not what was on the surface. Oh, sure. He looked the "Bad Boy" role and that's what caught my attention. It turned out to be a ruse.


You would think the motorcycle, leather jacket, smoking thing was real. He was three years older than me but at times you would never know it. Turns out it was only part of the story.

Truth was, he was a softy. A push over. And, most importantly, just a big kid at heart. He had a Peter Pan quality in that, he could be the leader and convince you that he was in charge but deep down, still a kid. Best part was you felt like a kid most of the time you were around him too.



Because he had a soft heart, he took a special liking to my sister. Not that she needed any special attention that I saw, but he saw something different. She had a soft heart, too.For instance, all my dad had to do was look at her a certain way and she would burst into tears. And, he knew I was not particularly nice to her. He was an only child and not versed in the ways of siblings. But, to make him happy, I tried, when I could and mostly when he was around, to be nicer. It was frustrating when he would come over to see me and make an effort to say hello to her first. He always made sure to give her a big hug, too. It did not thrill me, but that was him.



The part about being a kid at heart was humorous on occasion. Even though he had been places, he had never really been anywhere on his own and I certainly hadn't. You can imagine my family's chuckle when we had to call home the morning after our wedding to get directions to where we were going. (This was, after all, pre-GPS and cell phones.) When we finally got there, we went in to our hotel room. He sat down the bags and said, "You have go to be kidding?Was your mom trying to be funny?"

My mom had made our reservations for us. I had been in enough hotels to know that the lay out of the room was fairly standard. Literally, standard room, 2 beds. The fact that we could sleep where ever we wanted was not sinking in. After I gave him a look that must have made him think, he got it. Thirty minutes later, I mentioned I was hungry and wanted to go a little way down the coast to eat at a specific place. He looked at his watch, "I don't know. Do you think we have time?" Time for what?? It's not like you have to have me home by a certain time. "Oh, YEAH! I forgot". And so it was, the beginning of our life together.



One year, seven months and ten days later it would be over. He would be gone. Forever to be Peter Pan.