Harry Mike

[fbhjr]

Another friend I had when I was young was Harry.
It was back when the Six Million Dollar Man was on (not in reruns) and we
were big fans.  We ran everywhere bionically.  That means very slowly going
“du, du, du, du” as you “run”.

Harry had a rotten life.
He had been in the car with his father when the drunk driver hit them.  He
lived.  His father didn’t.
A few months later he found his mother dead due to a hemorrhage.
Even when I was nine I wondered about that after being left alone with two
kids due to that accident.  But, whatever brought it on, Harry had seen
both his parents dead in less than a year.
I met him when he came to live with his cousins.  They lived about a mile
from us and already had 4 kids before Harry and his sister joined them.

For more than a year, Harry spent more time at our house than at his
cousins.  We always played in our yard, never in his.  If not our yard, it
was the swamp between our houses.
It was never said, but very clear that I had a home, and he had a place he
was staying.

That changed when he was adopted into his cousin’s family.  He changed both
his first and last name, swapping his first and middle.  I guess he thought
Mike Harry was better than Harry Mike.

We started to drift apart after that.  I had been Harry’s friend, and now
he was Mike.
Now, he had a family.  He had a home.  He wanted to spend more time with
them.  I regretted that a bit, but couldn’t begrudge it.
In high school we were on totally different paths and hardly spoke at all.
He was in a band and into sports.
I was in the astronomy club and science fiction and my being on the swim
team wasn’t that sporty.
The only real time we talked in high school was when he came to me for help
on fonts for the logo of his band.
“I know you’ve got all that Star Trek and science fiction stuff,” he said.
“You must have some kind of cool lettering I can use for my band to make it
look futuristic.”
I did.  I gave him several different fonts from different SF sources.
He picked the one used for the ship name of the Enterprise in Star Trek.

After high school I went off to college and he joined the Marines.
Last Sunday was the 28th anniversary of him being blown up in the barracks
bombing in Lebanon.
It had been 3 or 4 years since I had even talked to him.
But, I can’t say I was surprised.
Even at 10 if you had asked me which of my friends would die young, Harry’s
name would have been on the top of my list.
Not in any way because he wanted to die or anything like that.
But, because even at 10, he knew it was inevitable.  Of all the kids I knew
growing up, he was the only one who didn’t feel immortal.  He was the only
one who knew the clock was ticking.
And, it was his saying “there isn’t much time, I’ve got to fit a lot in.”
He would have been right no matter how long he had.  I am sad it was only
20 years.

Comments

[silverdragonma.livejournal.com]

I remember that day. I was in boot camp and the DIs got called into a conference with the CO and it got very quiet. They brought out the TV that was kept in their room for use while they had the over night duty and turned on the news. They explained what had happened and that they would keep us all informed. A week later I was called in and was told my buddy that I had gone down to the recruiters with had made it and he was safe. Very interesting day in the life of a Marine boot.