The Last Time

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Life doesn’t stay where it’s at.

It’s always moving forward.

Was thinking about the old days…

…the really old days…

…when we would get a pickup baseball game going at the big house on the hill. All the kids coming from all over the neighborhood.

We’d choose up sides and play with a tennis ball and our aluminum bats.

So many games. 

A ball went into the pool and it was a homer. I kept track of the league leaders.

Perhaps the last time we played was when my buddy Jeff hit one of the house…

…which was a shot…

…bringing my irate Dad out of the house.

There was a last time when I hung out with all my college friends.

I remember that night because we all went to a bar after graduation and one by one my buddies left, and I was there at the end, looking at the entrance, waiting for them to come back.

There was a last time when the kids were all here, still under my control, eating dinner, talking about what needed to be done.

A last time for everything, and we usually don’t know when it might be it.

The saddest last time is when someone leaves for good. I have lost a few work buddies. I distinctly recall the last time that I saw them.

The smile on my buddy Dave’s face as I made a wise-crack. I heard him yell:

“F— off!” As he laughed.

A last time gem.

And there’s the thing about last times…

…they aren’t really gone.

I have the ability to remember all those wonderful moments, and my mind calls them back, for my own amusement, here and there.

And I believe that all that energy is stored somewhere in the universe.

Those laughs are in a data bank…

…the love we had and thought we lost…

…is still floating around in space.

Just waiting for us to grab hold.

The last time?

It’s kind of a false thing.

Like now, I’m in that backyard, taking my turn at bat. I can look out and see my brothers, and my friends…

…Tom and Jeff and Barb (our across the street neighbor who never missed a game).

I hit a ball that soars towards the pool, hoping that I got enough, and I round those bases when the ball splashes down.

It’s out there.

I grabbed it out of thin air…

…it made me smile again.

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