I heard Led Zeppelin coming out of Ryan’s room, so I put down my Sudoku book (yeah, I’ve been hooked for about a month), walked down the hall, and knocked on his door.
"Come in," he said.
I opened, and entered his sanctuary: astronomy posters hung from his walls, and a stack of books (Les Miserables, The Count of Monte Cristo, Macbeth, Divine Comedy and a host of other books that your average AP English student with a 4.0 in the class reads*) sat on his desk. A pile of (clean? dirty?) clothes lay in a heap at the foot of his bed. He sat at his desk, looking at The Internets.
He turned around in his chair. "What’s up?" He said.
"Oh, I just heard you listening to Zeppelin II, and I didn’t want to miss a chance to share in something we both love, that I happened to introduce to you in the pre-Pod days."
"I . . . just wondered what you were doing." I said.
He got very excited. "Oh! I found this awesome Family Guy Website, and I was downloading audioclips from it, and putting them on my computer." He clicked a few times, and showed me the website.
"When I was your age, I did the same thing, with The Prisoner and Star Trek," I said, "on my Mac II."
He frowned. "Weren’t you on Star Trek?"
"Yeah," I said, "but the sounds were from the original series."
He looked back at me.
"So it was geeky, but it wasn’t totally lame," I said. Why did I feel like I our ages and roles were reversed?
"What’s The Prisoner?" He said.
"A show that I love, that I don’t think you’re geeky enough to enjoy."
He clicked his mouse, and iTunes fell silent.
"Wil," he said, "you didn’t think I’d like Firefly."
"Touche," I said with a smile. "Any time you want to watch The Prisoner, I am so there."
"Actually, any time you want to do anything, I am so there, because I don’t want to be a stranger to you for the next five years, and I’ll close the gap any way I can."
"Okay," he said. "Maybe after school some day next week."
"When –"
"When my homework’s done," he said. "I know, Wil."
He wasn’t snotty. He wasn’t rude. He wasn’t impatient or unpleasant. He just . . . was. I saw a lot of myself in him.
"I need to work my a–" he began, "I need to work very hard this semester."
I nodded my head. "I’m glad you know that, Ryan."
He turned back around to his computer. I stood in his doorway and looked at him for a minute.
"He may not have my DNA, but I’ve given him some of the things that matter in life," I thought.
"Ryan?"
He didn’t turn around. "Hmm?"
"I love you."
"I love you too, Wil."
"Ramble On, And now’s the time, the time is now, to sing my song.
I’m goin’ ’round the world, I got to find my girl, on my way.
I’ve been this way ten years to the day, Ramble On,
Gotta find the queen of all my dreams."
*Yes, I’m proud as hell. Sue me.
As I finished writing this entry, and moments before I hit “publish,” Ryan sent me this link in an e-mail, with the subject “Check it out, Vilhelm.”
. . . I think we’re doing okay over here. 🙂
Awesome! Now I really want to read that book.
What grade of AP English is he in? I took 12 last year and it was so great. Fun class. LOADS of Hamlet, so much so that it is now my fave Shakespeare play. My teacher told me that on the AP exam you could answer pretty much every essay question with Hamlet. I milked that play for all it was worth and got a 4.
Plus, I have the ability to chuckle at your poker alias. *LoL*
“Long time reader, first time commenter…”
Slightly off topic, but I was noticed the pic of you with Charlie McCarthy. My folks own one and it has unfortunately made one of their guestrooms off-limits to my wife.
The Charlie that my parents own has it’s eyes painted looking sideways (supposedly at the ventriloquist). My parents had decided to store him in a sitting position propped up against the pillow on their guest bed. Unfortunately, the arrangement of the room caused Charlie to be staring directly at the doorway. The first time we visited & stayed overnight at my parents’ house as a couple, Julie (my wife) was the first to walk through the bedroom door. She could just make out Charlie’s figure in the darkness before turning on the light. Being fairly short (5′ 0″) Julie ended up having Charlie stare her right in the eyes.
I think my eardrums have finally healed from the ensuing high-pitched scream. And before you ask, it was Julie who screamed 😛
Although Charlie has been relocated within the house, Julie still refuses to sleep in that bedroom.
Ps. Hope to find you sometime on PokerStars. I’m there too, same login as posted here.
you know its seems funny to me that i run across you here, i dont know how i ended up here. i gre up watching you, and somedays you are still in my home in reruns. i met you once, long ago, when we were both children, in my hometown (a small hole in the road in Oregon). its wonderful to hear your life is going well!! i will be lurking around reading and catching up on occasion now that i know where to go (not like a stalker or anything i really am normal). And hey, i have the “stewie doing the robot” clip on my pc… because we, too, found that family guy site.
Wonderful post. Thanks for sharing that.
Seriously, there’s nothing better than this slow, swelling feeling of total love for the ones that are closest to you. I get this everytime I have a conversation with my dad, go shopping with my mum or am geeky with my big sis. It’s the feeling that you’re understood, loved back, that there is someone LIKE YOU. There’s nothing better than family. Thanks for sharing!
Lucky kid. I would have done anything to have taken an AP English class in High School. Even now I am taking as many english classes as I can. I hope he does well in that class. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful thing.
Every time you write something, I want to read more and more…if only you were some kind of superhuman writing machine…hehe. Keep doing what you’re doing.
Dude, you should be proud of those boys. You might not share DNA, but hun, Love doesnt care about that. I’m a step child and I wouldnt trade my step dad for anything in the world. Sounds like your doing one hell of a job with Ann raising those guys and you should feel proud of yourself, too. You know, not a lot of men would be willing to take a step dad role and actually try to be good at it. Nobody is perfect, but I think your doing wonderfully.
IMHO..
Thanks! I think I am going to do something with my son tonight.
What a wonderful post. It made me think about my little boy and wonder if we’ll stay close as he gets older… will he think his mom’s a geek for wanting to wax poetic about her favorite bands?
I agree with anj’s post – I’m a stepchild too and love my (step)dad so much. He’s a wonderful father and grandfather, and so supportive of me and my twisty-turny life. Hey, people think I look more like him than I do my mom!
I majored in English Lit, so I remember all my classes so well, especially AP English my senior year of high school. We were reading “Slaughterhouse Five” and had written papers on what we thought the name “Kilgore Trout” was an anagram of… the damn teacher thought I copied my paper from Cliffs Notes. I took that as an insult – I’ve never picked up a copy of CN in my life!!!
this is why i love reading your blog
Dear Wil,
DNA does not a good father make.
Sounds like you’re doing a good job. And it sounds like your son agrees.
Congratulations.
Wonderful story, Wil. Totally wonderful. Thank you.
As another father who does not share DNA with his son, I can totally relate. DNA does not make a father.
I wonder if I can get my son into the prisoner tonight.. Of course He’s only 19 months old.. If only the rovers had a catchy theme song as they bounced around!
“Who’s Number one?”
“You.. Are.. number.. Six”
“I am not a number! I am a free man!”
-Jason
WWdN: In Exile…what can I say! Genius!
You really know how to make a bad situation into a good one!
The Sudoku’s have stolen my wife’s soul too! I just can’t deal with anything that has a number in them!
Glad to hear one of your pod people are taking an interest in “The Prisoner”. I hope my daughter will when she’s older too…
Be seeing you!
haha darn that sudoku! 😛
is he taking ap lit or comp? i took lit my senior year… that class was annoying as hell but still fun at the same time. 😀 i got a 4 on it, so i didn’t hafta take any english classes in college! woot!
this was a nice post 🙂 thank you.
What a wonderful story.
Y’know, there’s a web version of Sudoku…www.websudoku.com
That link is why my best friend is going to kill me for his addiction. 🙂 But awww, great story! I’m another AP English vet, and those courses were hellish, but so worth it. Oh so worth it. Until we had to read Murder in the Cathedral. That…was an experience that left much to be desired.
-NG
I like the very very very tiny words in the bottom left corner. Very good. And rubbing off on someone has a very positive effect. Congrats
Hey Wil, if Ryan has the opportunity to take AP Psychology, it’s a guaranteed 5—by far the easiest of the AP tests. Even if his high school only offers a general psychology course, he could still murder that test, no kidding. You could probably skip the course all together and, as long as you ate a decent breakfast, get a 4.
Thx, Wil. That was great. It’s nice to have encouraging moments like those. Your doing great.
I may be just 29 years old, but I must say the Prisoner rawks!
You are A Good Dad™, Wil. 😀
…and a geek, but you knew that. 😛
Dude, if my parents *put together* were half the Dad you are, I’d have…
Hmm, bad at math here…
4 really crappy parents. No.
Hell, you know what I’m trying to say. Too bad more parents aren’t like you. 🙂
I love to hear you talk about your kids. I love the earnestness, the way you voice that longing we parents have to be a part of our children’s lives. We just want to be wanted by them.
I am also thrilled to see that you are Firefly fans. Of course, you are! What was I thinking?
What did you think of Serenity?
Wil-
I just have to tell you…I get precious few ‘free’ moments during the day here in the slave pit…
There is no better way that I can think of to spend those 60 precious minutes than by reading things like this. Thank you for making lunchtime internet surfing worth the click 🙂
Oh, how funny! There I am, reading your blog, and I decide to click on the “Sudoko” link to see what exactly it refers to. As I look at the illustration, I realize that it looks very familiar. Not 10 minutes before I had noticed that my husband, who never does crosswords in the paper, had started to fill out a puzzle graph. When I checked to see if I was recalling correctly, yes, indeed, there it was. Sudoku has begun today in our local paper (Register-Guard, Eugene, OR). True serendipity – or something!
Wow, I’m shocked that no other commenters have been cheering about The Prisoner. That show was fantastic.
I admit, though, that it takes a hardcore geek to appreciate the series’ ending.
I love that story. I like the relationship between Wil and Ryan, even though they are stepfamily.