Friends ©

Friendships are made and some dissolve and others well they never truly were friendships.
At the bbq this Saturday something happened, a reunion between two teenage friends.

Once upon a time newly arrived teens found each other in a lonely city where they knew few people and nothing of the language.
This is what most immigrants found as they stumbled off of the boat in Halifax.
Then there was the long bus ride that took 12 hours to here where they now and still call home.
They went to school together and they dropped out together.
As they grew up they stayed together and when one became a soccer player the other went to all of his games.
The other one became a professional gambler and many a night his buddy stayed to watch him play or to pass some money over when he was broke or needed a stake to get into a game.
They shared many a woman and partied in many a city.
I remember when they both took off to pick tobacco for one summer.
When one got married they partied like it was the biggest day of the year only to be repeated when the other wed.
They were closer than brothers and in fact even family treated them like brothers.
I knew both of these men because they helped raise me.
One was my father’s youngest brother the other was Archie so you can see why I have close bonds to Archie he was my baby sitter for years.
I could sit here and tell you stories about these two all night long.

Not wanting to be locked up in the house because of me they just took me where they wanted to go like the pool hall and they used to get into fights.
I remember one time in a brawl at the pool hall, I was about 8; They were slugging it out in a major fight and instead of hiding in a corner or under a table I was whacking someone’s knees with a pool cue that was hitting my uncle.
All that got me was a boot sending me across the room but gave my uncle the upper hand.
These two me helped mold my youth in some ways.
Archie is bold and direct.
My uncle is cunning but swift.
As they got older and more responsibilities were on them they saw less of each other and then one day in 94 the unbelievable happened, they got into an argument where my uncle hit Archie across the face.
Archie full of rage picked up a street trash can and put it through a store window instead of my uncle and waited for the police to come and get him.
That was the last time they saw or spoke to each other in this small piece of the world.
One incident destroyed a lifetime of friendship and memories.
Twelve years passed, children were born, family died, life happened and no one to share with.

At the bbq the other day Archie was sitting with my parents when my uncle Nick walked into the back with my aunt and one of his kids.
All of us that knew the story stopped and watched.
Archie saw him come in and stood up, looked at him and with tears streaming down his face walked down the steps and went to meet him
They stood there for what seemed an eternity in the silence of the whole crowd now holding each other and crying.


Walker