November 10, 1964

My father saved most of my homework from the residential military academy I attended from 1958 to 1966.

I'm scanning a huge volume of homework, letters I sent every week to my mom and dad, my weekly report cards, and the like. I'm scanning everything because of my fear of brush fires in Alpine, California.

So it's November 10, 1964. I continued to live off my euphoria, having spent the summer with my mom, my step-dad, and my friends in Baywood Park, California. I am a sixth grader, a staff sergeant in rank. This is my 6th year at the Academy with only two to go. Some years have passed since I last cried myself to sleep, my face in my pillow to avoid the shame of showing emotion in front of my classmates, all of whom sleep in the same dormitory as I.

I sit at my desk doing my reading assignment. Sister Kevin Therese just asked us to find and note examples of synonyms, homonyms, and antonyms. I think about my friends in California as I prepare to write down in ink from my cartridge pen. I stab the new blue cartridge, secure it and get ready to write.

Anxiety-Worry (S), Worn-Fresh (A), Plain-Plane (H)

Friend-Enemy (A), Veil-Vale (H), Hastened-Hurried (S)

This is a cake assignment; no need to focus; no need to think about the assignment.

We finish the assignment, turn it in to Sister Kevin Therese, and head out to the school yard across from Oak Park Stadium. We play tag, swing on the swings. My favorite playtime activity is the throw a rubber ball against the wall and then catch it. Thousands of repetition make me an excellent fielder.

Only two days to go before I go home. My dad will pick me up, take me out for a Vienna hotdog and fries, and then drive me to stay with my mom until early Sunday morning. They have been divorced since 1957. I see my dad very little during the school year--just Wednesday evenings, Friday afternoons, and all day Sunday.

Life is good except . . .

I have no idea that my dad, the most influential man in my life, will die exactly six years later from a heart attack while jogging.