A Birthday Message

It's my little brother's birthday today. I hope he is having a good day. I'm not entirely sure where he is. I know the town but nothing more really. He decided to take a break from family. Makes a lot of sense to me. I've done that in the past...not for so long but, I wasn't home enough in the first place. I close my eyes and see him wandering off with his friend as they discuss how to make a movie (they are in grade 3 in this image) and I also see him reenacting for me the second Star Wars Movie in the back yard...so well that when I finally got to see it, I felt that I was watching a re run. We played legos together. He would push me in the wagon (his turn would be next....I promise!) around the yard...swerving deftly around trees and avoiding the garden. He's a nice person. A bit odd. Slightly melodramatic. Views Marvin the paranoid robot as, perhaps, too much of a role model. He got me my first Leonard Cohen tape. He made me a chain mail garter. He has always been unapologetically himself. He has his demons but, they haven't bested him yet. He used to write me poetry written on donut shop napkins. He would bike over vodka to me when I was at a friend's house. He would carry our beer into the underages clubs. My friend S and I drove him to the hospital when he broke his elbow. He didn't cry much. I cast him in his first ever theatrical role. He never seemed to grow out of the adolescent gronk stage. Inside his brain, a genius lurks. When I went to university, I left him behind. I dream of him sometimes. Sometimes they are nightmares and I wake up afraid...for him. But, lately when I think of him I feel that he is ok. I miss him. I love him. and just want to wish him a happy birthday.