Catch
Ron Lauderbach
I sit with my father, looking out at the swimming pool he
played in with grandchildren he no longer knows. When I
tell him he should have paid me more to clean it in the
sixties, he shrugs his shoulders. I pick up an Abraham
Lincoln biography and notice he’s on the same page he was
last week. It’s interesting how Abe picked his cabinet, I say.
My father wrinkles his nose and chuckles. Setting sunlight
reflects off the glass-covered photo of my father with his
mixed-doubles tennis partner and sparkles in the diamonds
set into the gold ring my mom insisted he buy to replace his
simple wedding band, when they moved to Palm Springs.
Hanging beside a letter from Ronald Reagan, he swears
carries the President’s wet signature, is an appreciation
award from the Southern California Lumbermen’s
Association and an old photo of my mother wearing a
bathing suit. My dad catches the ball I throw, looking at me
with eyes I’ve never seen and slightly parted lips, his tongue
flicking in and out of his mouth, like a lizard.
Ron Lauderbach
I sit with my father, looking out at the swimming pool he
played in with grandchildren he no longer knows. When I
tell him he should have paid me more to clean it in the
sixties, he shrugs his shoulders. I pick up an Abraham
Lincoln biography and notice he’s on the same page he was
last week. It’s interesting how Abe picked his cabinet, I say.
My father wrinkles his nose and chuckles. Setting sunlight
reflects off the glass-covered photo of my father with his
mixed-doubles tennis partner and sparkles in the diamonds
set into the gold ring my mom insisted he buy to replace his
simple wedding band, when they moved to Palm Springs.
Hanging beside a letter from Ronald Reagan, he swears
carries the President’s wet signature, is an appreciation
award from the Southern California Lumbermen’s
Association and an old photo of my mother wearing a
bathing suit. My dad catches the ball I throw, looking at me
with eyes I’ve never seen and slightly parted lips, his tongue
flicking in and out of his mouth, like a lizard.