my husband & kites

When my husband was a kid, he used to hate flying kites. Most average 5 year olds marvel at new wonders of the world-such as kites, tin foil balloons, planes soaring up above-in clear blue skies.

But not him.

One summer, on vacation in Jersey, his mother bought him a kite at a beachfront shop. My husband is an only child. So naturally his mother looked forward to moments like these: Where she could teach him something new & he would be utterly fascinated-as most 5 year olds are in raw moments of life discovery.

Off they went, kite in hand, down to the beach. His mom kneels down, eye level, and explained what to do.

-Take the kite, CJ, she said, with an encouraging smile.

-Slowly begin to run down that way.

Then she pointed in the direction of the setting sun.

-As you run, let the string go until the kite climbs WAY up into the sky. When it reaches the top, you keep holding on and watch it fly!!

The boy shakes his head confused. Sighing gently, his mother takes the kite, and begins to run down the beach. He sits in the sand, a right angle, watching her go. The cookie monster kite climbs through the air until its floating above, waving hello down below.

She is grinning ear to ear and yelling at him, 10 yards away.

-SEE, she shouts. SEE how I did IT?!

I'm sure his mom is thinking that he will jump up, come running, and demand a turn.

But he didn't.

Instead CJ stands up, points his arm and forefinger in the direction of the kite and screeches:

-MA! Bring it back down! Please bring it down and out of the sky!

So she does. A few minutes later, his mom plops down next to him, kite and string jumbled together in her arms.

-Don't you want to fly the kite?-she asks exasperated.

He is again in the sand, making circles with his toe. Little does the boy know how hard & exhausting it is then, in moments like these, to be a mother.

-I don't want to fly the kite, he says.

-Because, pause (as little kids do)

-You or me might let go of the kite & it will fly away. Can't I just sit here and hold it? -He asks then.

She looks at her son then and gets it. So that's what they did. Sitting together, kite in his lap, watching the sun meet the ocean.

To this day my husband never learned to fly a kite properly. He was only five, but already afraid of loosing something that you can't get back again. And aren't we all?

Maybe one day, when we have kids, he'll take off running, down Myrtle Beach, letting the string & kite crawl up into the sky. He'll be out of breath, sprinting and hollerin', as our kid sits and watches. And as CJ shows him a new wonder of the world, my husband, too, may see-that many things we love-do in fact come back to us, after all.