Three summers ago my family and I moved to Charlotte. It was a brutal August, not only was it hot, but North Carolina was in the middle of a drought. We loved our new front porch so much though that we still sat out there almost every night. We moved onto a lovely tree lined street in an older section of the city and waiting for us on arrival was an invitation to the street’s annual barbecue. This is true Southern barbecue featuring the entire pig on a huge grill at one of my neighbor’s houses. What a great way to meet your neighbors!
It was at that get together that we realized how lucky we had gotten with our street. There were lots of kids, and lots of friendly people. It was hard to keep names straight. We also got really lucky in that the one house on the street that has a pool also houses a little boy the same age as my oldest. Sweet! We were immediately invited over to swim and that was the beginning of a great friendship for all of us.
Eric was there when we went to swim at our neighbor’s house and I remember being simultaneously grateful that he was there to break the ice and jealous that he was getting all the attention. Eric can converse with anyone about any topic so it’s easy to let him to the socializing, but this was MY street, I needed to get to know my neighbors.
This past weekend that same family hosted another annual block event, the pool party. As always, we had a great time. It’s all the same people, the kids just a little bit older, everyone brings a dish and we swim and eat and socialize and it’s great. This year I felt Eric’s absence. He had never been to one of those events before, but I could remember him in the pool from that first summer. I could see him talking to our host and playing with the kids. It was like my own personal phantom, in a good way.
It was nice to think about him having fun and being his typical self and not lying in that hospital bed in Las Vegas. I need to do that more often.
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