The Turning Gem

I’d like to be whichever character my kids are into for comfort reasons. I’d like to be the scruffy cowboy who comes back home to find himself stuck in a Hallmark Movie. The one with the dog. Movies like that help my wife relax.

I’d like to be Fizban the Fabulous on the nights my sons need a Wizard by their side. I’d like to be Clint Eastwood from a Leone film, or somebody Louis Lamour wrote about, so I could keep my dad company.

I feel more like the Vampire Lestat without the confidence. The uncle whose down on his luck in some show about selling weed. I come on at midnight when folks are asleep and dreaming.

When everyone wakes up, I’ll be their dad. A husband, a brother, and a son. I’ll be grateful they’re with me, and that I am who I get to be in their company.