Ok, “The Man” is pretty cool.

I knew “The Man” from camp. He’s cool. And fun. And I like having him around. He picks out funny movies and isn’t bad at basketball. He makes my Mom laugh. "The Man" and I talk sometimes. He’s kind of screwed up. Not in a bad way, just the way you get screwed up when someone dies. At first, I didn’t know he had a son who died. I just knew he had two sons, M & D. I found out about the third son while playing basketball in the driveway one day. He said that E liked to play basketball too, and I said “Who’s E?” and we talked a little bit about what it’s like to lose a father, and what it’s like to lose a son. “The Man” is a good man, like my father was. But he’s sometimes very very sad. Sadness can screw you up. I know that.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot: A note to the anonymous commenter who was concerned that I was reading this blog: I’m almost 14, not 4 – and hear far worse in the hallways and the locker room at school every day. My Mom doesn’t hide things from me, and we talk about everything (yeah, even girls!) and my Mom is pretty mild in how she writes, compared to what you hear everywhere else in the world, and even what you read for school assignments! I’m glad you stopped by for a visit and hope you’ll come back. But there’s no reason for you to be concerned, I’m not a baby. And those rumors my Mom referred to? I had already heard them at camp, back at the time all of this began, when I was like 11.

~Jonathon