Part 2
Now that I've peeked your interest let me paint you a picture into Mario's life.
We are both forty five except his birthday is in August and mine is in January, I always call him old man.
Not just because of a few months difference in age but he was always laying plans for the future. Road map Mario we would tease him.
His father had been in Korea. Mario grew up in a disciplined home. I always found his "yes sir, no sir" a bit strange.
We always played pickup games at Babcock Park in east Hialeah, basketball, football whatever the sport of the season was.
In every sense of the word Mario was a Boy Scout, he made it all the way to Eagle Scout.
He met Silvia his wife at Sunshine Skating rink on forty-ninth street.
We would spend our weekends there before we were old enough to be bar flies at Casanovas.
She was the prom queen, her feet never touching the ground. This prissy girl had found her gentleman in the making.
They were the "it" couple.
He was my friend yet I lived a million miles away from his life.
I was trouble.
I would daydream into my poems or I'd be sleeping on my desk.
It was in middle school that I was baptized the Poet by my friends.
I would write the love letters they would fold into paper footballs and flick at girls.
I challenged my teachers until the eleventh grade, then we called it a draw and parted ways.
I had trouble tattooed on my heart from the word go.
The longest girl I had was Gypsy, I think it was three weeks. I would always have another conquest in mind.
Maybe that's why Mario and I as adults ran in separate circles, Sylvia knew I was trouble.
Mario and Sylvia are the proper pillars every community relies on.
She is the soprano in the choirs at Our Lady of the Lakes and Mario is very involved in the religious retreats.
They are the fundraisers everyone counts on for all noble causes and a few political adventures.
They are the wise owls who have purchased a few vacant lots in heaven.
Like I said neighborhood heroes.
As the curtain came down on our first interlude It became clear to me that I was the only soul Mario could find solace in.
To be continued.
