18

Road trippin' with my two favorite allies
Fully loaded we got snacks and supplies...

Suave, cool, and confident.

It's time to leave this town
It's time to steal away

Ryan's sharp jawline was accentuated by his blonde 9 o clock shadow, maintained flawlessly to look playful, but not messy.

Let's go get lost
Anywhere in the U.S.A.

His body swayed into the song, which had been practiced for an unknown count of times to reach this level of perfection.

Let's go get lost
Let's go get lost

I wondered if his mind could possibly wander anywhere else besides solely on what he's playing and singing while he's so engaged in a performance. I wondered what it would feel like to be touched by his hands, and what it would be like to talk aimlessly with him in bed until the early morning hours, what his silhouette looks like as he sleeps.

Blue you sit so pretty
West of the one
Sparkles light with yellow icing
Just a mirror for the sun
Just a mirror for the sun
Just a mirror for the sun

The overhead light in the room exploded into full brightness, and our eyes met. We smiled to each other. It was a moment that begged acknowledgement of the slow and sure passage of time and seemed clearly to say, "You are both moving on."

These Smiling eyes are just a mirror for...

The connection between us was just too contrived, which in most cases will happen after meeting a stranger who you have exchanged messages with over several weeks. Fascination will always stubbornly rebut force. But I became aware of the lost lovers of his past that he must also be struggling to move on from, and I missed Austin.

17

For privacy purposes, his name is Thomas. Thomas is a two year old boy who is brought to the fitness center's Kid's Club at least twice a week by his mother. On most mornings, he stays with us for around an hour while his mom goes off and gets sweaty doing different strenuous workouts. The first time I saw Thomas toddle into the room, I noticed the multitude of light bruises on his forehead and his pudgy arms and legs. We quickly learned where he earned his ugly trophies from: Thomas is a thrill-seeking toddler who never fails to find the most impossible ways to injure himself (although fortunately never seriously of life-threateningly). These accidents can range from him toppling over backwards while trying to lift himself up onto the knee-height table in the middle of the room to him rolling off of the beanbag that he managed to triumphantly scale, as if the soft fabric were the jutting rocks of Mount Everest. My favorite incident, although I prefer it only because of the story that it created and not because of the moment itself, was when we turned to find him struggling head-down and feet kicking towards the ceiling in another baby's carrier that he had tipped over. To him, the carrier must have presented the mouth of a cavernous cave just begging to be explored. My co-worker managed to grab his legs in one hand and pry him from the carrier before anything terrible happened. Immediately afterwards we watched in awe as he crawled off into the sunset in search of his next adventure, not a baby tear shed.
Several attendants in the Kid's Club are apprehensive about Thomas's behavior and choose to leave him in "The Car": a baby bouncer that provides a safe confinement for troublesome babies. However, I am a supporter of Thomas's risky life-style. I believe that as long as he is supervised, he is building within himself the confidence and self-assurance that many *adults* lack. With every fall he is learning just how far he can push himself, and with every tumble he is discovering just what he needs to change the next time he endeavors to run from one side of the room to the other. We are watching the birth of a world leader, an Olympic athlete, a Grammy-winning artist, or whatever he is ambitious enough to achieve in the future.