Life moves around me as I stare at my kids play among the other children in the water park. It's life in full effect. The little boys and little girls play without a care or worry in this world. God, I miss feeling that way. It's innocence at its best. At my age, all I can do is think back at my own life as a child and fondly remember when things were this easy. When the only worry I had was trying to stay out of summer school. But today, for these children, there isn't care in the world.
The sun is beating down on us relentlessly in this open playground. I’m only brought back to reality when the cool water splashes along my ankles from the water cannons that are mounted near by. The coolness shocking my internal system, as the water quenches my sun dried skin sending tingles up my leg. I revert my attention to the playing children that are have a blast and being kids, I seek out my own, on the crowded splash pad.
My eyes scan left to right feverishly looking for the bright orange shirt Christopher (my three year old son) is wearing. Found him! Just as I begin to look for Nico )My oldest at four); he runs up and spits water in Christopher’s face that he collected in his mouth, as the water cascaded down from a T shaped metal pole that is spurting water at a high rate of speed. I can’t help but laugh. About the only time I smile nowadays.
The parent seating area are benches set up like you would see in an arena. They surround the splash pad like seats around a tennis court. Above the seats is a little bit of shading, but if my skin could talk it would tell you it isn’t enough. Around us are tall wood panels, about four inches wide, stretching up high in the sky, like trees sprouting out of the concrete. The wood planks form a fortress, a labyrinth of sorts, that has tunnels, stairs and things that light up and make noises throughout its intimidating exterior. It’s not only a kids paradise. Parents can summon their inner child from within to play and tag along with their children. Which I gladly do when my sons beckon me.
My glances go from my kids to the parents seated around me. I find myself examining them. Are they happy? What’s going on in their life? I know I am not the only one in pain. It comes to us all in one form or another. Whether it’s a loss of a spouse, loved one, dog or friend or sadly even a child. Other problems of financial means, unhappiness and depression. No one truly knows who the internal us is, but I sit and stare trying to figure out the ones before me, by piercing through their exterior and into their soul.
But in my quest for understanding, I realize one thing that we all have in common at this moment. We are all smiling. We are finding joy in our kids as our little ones splash and run around us. Right now, we are one in the same. We are parents.
I lean forward from my seat placing my elbows on my knees, my hands hovering between my legs. I rub them together and look up at the beautiful blue sky. I squint my eyes to try and squeeze some of the suns rays out as the beams pour into my corneas before I have to look away. The mist from the water refreshing me as it attaches itself to my body. The lingering mist floats in the air like snow on a winter day. As close to snow as I’ll ever get living here in Florida.
It’s a beautiful day today. It’s that kind of day that makes you miss the ones you love because you want them to share such a wonderful moment. But then I realize that in this moment my loved one is with me. All the things that are making me smile proves Mimie, the mother of my boys, my wife, is with us, surrounding us in this moment.
She is reaching down from the blue heavens up above, through the beams of the sun, providing warmth to my skin. She is the mist on my body cooling me down from a hot summer's day. She is the giggles that are swirling around her children as the laughter bounces off the walls around us. She is the love that they feel and the joy they are having as they frolic through the streams of water. She is the hydrogen in the droplets that is blessing her children, drenching them with love from head to toe. She has been here with them since we arrived. She is with her boys. She is alive and thriving in my children's life. Her life goes on because we go on, for her.
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Christopher Fusaro. The author of Captain Imperfecto.
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Also see us at www.captainimperfecto.com
I lost my brother this past Feb and I feel like I see him often when I am out running. I think he is in the birds that are mocking me trying to get me to run faster. I know... I am totally crazy! But I have been running for three years now and have never seen them until after he passed away. That is where I like to see him :)
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