The Allosaurus

When I was a little boy, I had a best friend.
He lived across the street.His name was Kevin . I called him "Kevie."

We shared playpens, learned to walk and talk together, run, ride bikes, climb trees, and play with plastic army men and plastic dinosaurs in the tall grass being my mother's house.

We loved playing dinosaurs the best.

We liked the Tyrannosaurus and the Allosaurus the best of all.
Kevie loved the Allosaurus.

The Tyrannosaurus was green. The Allosaurus was gray, almost silver.
Their names were engraved on their tails.
We spent many happy hours pretending that our green plastic army men were attacking the dinosaurs.
The dinosaurs usually won. Those poor army men never stood a chance against our monsters.
Rifles could not stop the fury of Kevie's Allosaurus! Even a tank was no match for my T-Rex!

Kevie and I grew up and got to old for plastic dinosaurs, and life took us in different directions.

Many years passed.

One day when I was in my mid thirties, I stopped by my mother's house to cut the lawn.
I went out back in the tall grass, swinging a sickle because the tall grass was too much for a lawn mower to cut.

One swing of the sickle caused me to golf something gray into the air.
In a split second I knew what it was; the Allosaurus!

I ran over and scooped it up in my hand. I was thrilled to go from 35 years old back to seven just by holding the plastic dinosaur in my hand.

My first thought was of Kevie, who I really hadn't seen in many many years.

I walked over to his mother's house and knocked on the big oak door. His sister answered the door, but she didn't recognize me right away.

"Is Kevie here by any chance?" I asked.

"Kevin?" she said, "and who should I tell him is here?"

"Kenny"

He came around the corner with a big grin. "Kenny!!! Oh my god! Good to see ya! How are ya?" We hugged.

"Never mind how I am", I said in a false angry voice, "Stop leavin' you're stuff over in my mother's back yard!"

He looked at me, confused for a second. Then I held the little gray dinosaur out in front of him. He looked at it, then at me, and as I handed it to him, a huge smile lit up on his face.

"The Allosaurus!" he yelled, and we laughed until we had tears in our eyes.

---

Years went by...and I got a call. They told me Kevie had died.

I went to the wake by myself.

Getting out of the car I bumped into my old friend Johnny from the old neighborhood.

I hadn't seen him in many years.

We looked at each other and we burst into tears.

We hugged each other.

Neither one of us could speak. We just hung onto each other and let it out.

After the wake I drove home crying so hard that I missed my exit and drove for 15 minutes in the wrong direction before I figured it out.

I didn't expect that it would hit me so hard.

It's hard to explain the bonds of friendship. They go much deeper than you know.

We drift away from each other with time.

But the bonds are strong between two kids,
...and a plastic dinosaur.