…they say

Charge!

The door blasts open a second before my alarm goes off. I wake and roll with an incoherent “whaaaa….?”.

“Dad, it’s a spectacular day, look.”

He points to my blinds that are struggling to contain the bright morning light, creating a brilliant yellow halo.

“It’s like the same in my room. I just couldn’t stay in bed, you know, it’s like way too much light to stay in bed. Yeah.”

I’ve got my alarm set with a “pioop, pioop” sound. The least alarming of alarms. It’s not taking into account the “awesomeness” that is my son. And his irrepressible charge.

“Dad, can I have both, uhm, uhm…”

“Pastries?”

“Yeah, pastries….can I have both?”

“Sure.”

Oh! Sweet wonder of life!!

There’s a full bowl of coffee left in the pot. A little milk, a lot of sugar, a 45 second whizz around the microwave and I’m sitting on the futon beside the “pastry destroyer”.

The strawberry cobblers are both sticky and flaky. Perfection for a pastry, scary for a girlfriend. But lots of pleasure in both cases, despite the cleanup costs.

But today, it’s so sunny, that dark memories are quashed.

“Mmmm, mmmm, dad, do you think I should wear my new shoes today? Because like we used my old shoes you know when they measured for uhm, uhm, I don’t know how you call it… goes here over the shoes. Anyways for the musical maybe I should wear my old shoes. Yeah, because today we do the whole show you know.”

The school has been preparing costumes, sets, rehearsing songs and choreographies for the year end musical. This time it’s The Pirates Of Penzance with 95 students on stage at one point or another. Noah is a pirate. Of course.

“Weren’t they giving you boots?”

“No, no, black things that like go from here around the uh, ankles, yeah, and then go over our shoes.”

“Like spats.”

“Yeah, exactly, that’s what Mr. Francois said. Spats.”

“Wear your old shoes so that there are no hassles.”

“Okay, and I’ll like wear my new shoes for the Halo Race. I got new shorts, new shoes, a new white T-shirt. All I need, dad, is a new water bottle.”

The old one has in fact acquired a permanent slime around the spout, like the bottom of an abandoned rubber wading pool. Hardly refreshing.

“What a week, huh, dad. Craaaaaaazzzzyyyy fun. Tomorrow is the show. No, no, first today is a whole run through, so yeah, that’s cool. In full costume too. Tomorrow, it’s the show. Twice, because we do it for another school in the, uhm, after lunch. Then we stay for supper and do it like in a premiere, that means the first time…did you know that, dad?”

“Yes, sir.”   I’ve had a few of my own, what with being a filmmaker. But this is his parade.

“Ha, cool, Sir Noah…ha…yeah so then after tomorrow is the Halo Race. You know dad, Sir Noah, here, is the lead runner from my class because I’m the fastest. Cool huh? And that was with my old shoes. So, yeah. We run a whole three kilometers and it’s for sick kids. And there are us, 165 students, and five other schools of like, oh, at least three hundred, so yeah, we’re going to be like one thousand, uh, five, no, six hundred and and and sixty-five.”

“Wow, now that’s a lot.” The kid’s good with math. Pray it leads to wealth.

Noah is beginning the assault on the second pastry. I suck the last few drops of coffee. Noah has been doing the inventory of the week’s wonders all weekend, so I know the lines.

It has become like an anthem for him. He sings the list continuously because it feels good. I make a mental note to find my Marley CD and pump it through my headphones while I work today. I may come close to his level of pleasure.

“So after after tomorrow, yeah that’s Thursday, we do the show again two times, and the last time is at night and all my family is coming, yeah, we bought eight tickets right?”

“Right.” Even bought a ticket for his 15 year old cousin’s girlfriend.

“Then after after after (he’s counting on his fingers by now) it’s Laser Quest. And then after after after after tomorrow it’s Amanda’s birthday party and…..”

He takes a deep breath and smiles at his own comic pause.

“… and then, the best of the best, the day after after after after after tomorrow. That’s Sunday, right? Yeah, it’s the Pokemon pre-release. Woooohooooouuu. So awesome that awesome is not a good enough word, dad.”

What’s so awesome, that awesome is too weak a word?

A friend told me last week that despite what I may think, I’m actually happy…that I have a Happy Soul.

We did buy new shoes, Noah and I. It was a 2 for 1 special. So we definitely have Happy Soles.

“Mega Awesome dad. It’s a Mega Awesome Week.”

A Happy Week.

Happy Soles.

Happy.