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Maverick

As a young boy, I used to stand in this very spot

Right in the doorway, neither in the bedroom or outside it, I used to blend in with the shadows and stare at my father’s back He’d been taller than me most of my life, so I looked up to him—literally

He always had the same routine as he stood in front of his vanity First, he folded his sleeves back and buttoned them Then the cuff links were added—one of the ifted hi sleek he would be proud to wear

Once the cuff links were secured, he pulled the watch onto his wrist White gold and flashy, it contrasted against the dark colors he usually wore His suits were always black or blue, never tan or silver His change in wardrobe seemed to occur after the worst day of his life came to pass

His silver wedding ring sat on the vanity where it’d been every day for a year He always stared at it for a long tiain

When I was a child, it was so it

But now he didn’t knohat to do with it

He straightened in front of the ht on his htly weathered like worn-out leather, but he still possessed the resilience of a young man Veins stretched fro froht skin He was tall, a ainst him all these decades

Noas taller than him

Stronger than him

But not smarter than him

Our lives had never been the sao