I watch as my son reaches the level road and is freed from the hill where gravity releases its jealous grip on person, place, and/or thing, beckoning them all to the valley floor. He's no longer climbing; he can safely continue on a horizontal plane toward home.
The street we're now on is officially called 325 East. If you're familiar with Utah's boring, but painfully effective street-naming system, you know how (and why...) a street can be called after a plot on a grid. But, that's what it's called so that's what we call it. On many maps, the dead end road is called Warnock Avenue, named after a long-time resident, who--and I have no evidence other than hearsay to back this up--might have absconded our kitten around 1972 and raised it as her own. Again, not verified.
If my family had its way, the road would be called Lois Lane, but we never pursued it and that's another story, altogether.
But the road exists and at the end of the road lies our home. When I was half my youngest son's age, the road existed in unpaved form only, and where our house is, a field existed. I spent hours and hours in that field, at least, I think I did. When I think of my childhood, scenes of me playing and exploring the mountain come to mind when the reality was more like me spending hours and hours in front of the TV watching The Brady Bunch, and Gilligan's Island reruns.
The street is now paved and has been for almost forty-five years. The field, like so many, is gone and replaced by structures that offer security, privacy and the internet which allows the occupants to watch both episodes of The Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island twenty-four/seven.
My son runs (as I once did...) and I walk a little quicker than normal. He lives in a world where the houses have always been on 325 East and the road's always been black. And yet, I wonder where he'll be in his fiftieth year. Will be be at the intersection of State Street and 325 East remembering how things once were decades in the past? Will he be watching a child of his own as it learns and grows? And will they be heading home?
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