It was always dangerous when John and I were together. The real problem was that we were always together.
When anyone saw the two of us they knew something was up. And they were usually right. That’s because we had imaginations that would run pretty wild, and we did our best to bring our imaginings to life.
Our motto was “what would happen if we (fill in the blank.)” What would happen? One of us would wind up in an emergency room somewhere, and it was usually me.
John was too smart to get hurt. He was one of the most intelligent people I’ve ever known. I think anyone that really knew John would tell you the same. But if you only just met him you probably wouldn’t know. He wasn’t one to flex his brain in public like that.
But we used to have philosophical discussions – at 12 years old. And these discussions would come to mind years later when I studied philosophy in the seminary. And he made me think all over again. I said he was intelligent.
John was my first and very best friend. He gave me every one of my nicknames, including Tobias E. Taba III. But we were more than friends. We were Swamphogs.
We swam in bayous and swamps, and whenever we could we swam in pump wells. We would wait until the water from up North would swell the bayou to 14 feet deep. And we would cannonball in as deep as we could go so the undertow would carry us way downstream.
We would explore nutria holes underwater. Our guardian angels worked overtime.
We built battleships out of 2x4s and real boats out of 55 gallon drums that we used to navigate the woods during spring floods.
We set things on fire, and we blew up things, including ourselves. Sometime the guardian angels had to take a break.
We did other things too, but I’m not entirely sure about statute of limitations on some of them.
I never told him goodbye when I left home. And I’m so sorry that I didn’t tell him goodbye when he left for home.
When my time comes to follow him this will test the wisdom of The Creator: to see if He puts my cousin and me together again. I hope He does, but I’m sure we’ll have to make some promises.
Categories: What was I thinking?
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