Father and Son

FATHER & SON The indoor soccer arena was under the glide path of the western approach to the international airport The still-clever father made a snide macho comment to the gold ear-ringed teenager with the thick-muscled legs “Uh huh”, said the kid mentally reducing the angle and speed of an attack on goal as they crossed the parking lot in the surreal fog of a lake effect thaw Breaking low ceiling, its wings broad with flaps, the big silhouette of a descending jet liner was moving so slowly that it just seemed to hover like a large manta ray suspended in the lift of a mild ocean current “Nice”, said the man “Yeah” said the kid, who followed the plane over the shining bald head and the “gee wiz” gaze of his thickening father and, just for an instant, for the very first time, he thought of his dad as a man who could love