Bob in Barcelona

Dear Mrs. Grigori,

First the good news

Your son isn't dead

Provided the plane he's on right now
Doesn't plummet into the ocean
He should be just fine

Unfortunately, I have no idea
Where the plane he's on is going

So the fact that he's alive
While it should bring you comfort
Should only bring you temporary comfort
As I have no idea what will happen to him
In whatever foreign country it is
He's decided to trot off to

I realize that as his teacher
And the chaperone of this trip
It is my responsibility
To know more
Than what I'm sharing with you

But sadly
I only know what I know
Because the girl your son is best friends with
Is also along with us on this trip
And she tells me
That when the two of them
Said they were going to the 'museum'
They were actually going to the airport
To put your son Dennis on a plane
Although as luck would have it
Brenna didn't seems to have forgotten
Where exactly he was going

You're welcome to torture her
When she gets back to the states
But Barcelona has much tougher laws on that
Than we do back in the U.S.
So for now, I'm going to have to believe
That she has no idea
Where the plane was headed
That she escorted your son on

Now, I know your first instinct is to panic
But I should tell you
That I have some personal experience
In wandering children

My daughter Jenna
Got on a plane for the first time
When she was thirteen

She snuck onto a flight
That she thought was going to Miami
Where her online boyfriend Teddy lived
Teddy turned out to be another teenage girl named Ivy
And Jenna, my daughter
Accidentally snuck onto a flight bound for Kansas
Where she called me in a panic
Screaming--

'THERE ARE NO BEACHES! WHERE ARE THE BEACHES?'

I had to book a flight to get here
Then book two flights back

When I suggested that Jenna sneak onto a flight home
She looked at me with utter disdain
And said--

'That's not funny, Daddy.'

As if her being an immoral brat was fine
But me SUGGESTING she do something wrong
Was too much of a disruption

After all, she was being rebellious
Who was I to not give her enough
To rebel against?

The truth is, I was just relieved
That I wasn't Ivy from Miami's father

I was never meant to be the disciplinarian
That was supposed to be my wife's job
But she's dead

Car accident
Snowy Vermont road

A story I'm sure you don't want to hear

Her death does pertain to this story, however

You see, my wife was a wanderer
She had these urges to travel

When she was a kid, her mother
Jenna's grandmother
Was one step above a gypsy

She married a military man
Who turned out not to be in the military
But rather, a con artist

And my wife spent most of her childhood
Staying one step ahead of her father's lies

When she rolled into Providence
We met up at the folk festival

Oh, please don't misunderstand me
We both hated folk music

She was there because she wanted to find weed
And a folk festival seemed like a good place to find it

I was there working a hot dog stand

Bad, bad summer job

She asked me where the good weed was
And I asked her if that was a band

That should tell you how worldly I was
Back before I crested middle age

We spent a day going from private beach to private beach
Being chased off one after another

Until finally we wound up at a party
Where, if I remember correctly
There were tikki torches
And lots of guest bedrooms
And a guy named Shawn
Who gave me and Annie
All the pot we could ever want

You'll notice I sort of buried the guest bedroom bit
But that would be the part where Jenna came in

Annie got pregnant
And got panicked

She was already halfway to Maine
When she had to turn around
And come back
Because she didn't know what to do
Aside from tell me I was going to be a father

I was so happy
And she was so scared

She didn't know how to settle down
She didn't know how to root herself
She was a moving person, you know?

Her whole life was a moving picture

But then Jenna was born
And she stopped

She just stopped

I was afraid she'd take off
But instead she froze
Right where she was

She said Jenna was a moment
And she wanted to live in that moment
Just in that moment
For as long as she could

The only trip she took after that
Was to Vermont
To see her mom and dad

Isn't that crazy?

I mean, doesn't that just drive you insane?

I wonder if Jenna will settle down
Once she has a kid
Or someone else
To settle down for

It's hard having a moving person in your life

It's like trying to read a book
Where the words keep moving

You're interested in what's happening
But eventually you give up
Because staying in it just takes too much out of you

I gave up on my daughter, Mrs. Grigori

You're the only person I've admitted that too
But since your son is most definitely getting expelled for this little stunt
I doubt we'll be having much contact after this

You know, I really don't like traveling very much

I was always content
To stay in Providence
Take a trip to New York or Boston every now and then
And let that be my life

I like the people and the places God gave me
And everything else I took in small doses

This is the first year I've signed up
To do this trip to Barcelona
Because Senora Castora's son
Came down with chicken pox

And I thought maybe
I'd been missing out on something

But the truth is
I'm not a moving person

Maybe that's what Annie loved about me

I was always thrilled
Just being with her

And when she was gone
I just wanted to be with my Jenna

And now I'm just waiting
Until she comes back
Or I go to Annie

Whichever comes first

That's what I'd advise you to do, Mrs. Grigori

Not die, of course
Wait

Wait for Dennis to come home

If you've loved him and given him some roots
Then he'll want to come back
And if you haven't
Then there's not much you can do about it now

Either way, you're a parent

And that means you wait
Until your kids decide
They need you again

By then you may be gone
But that's one of life's great ironies

I'm sorry I didn't keep a better eye on Dennis

Right before I found out he was gone
I was on the roof of my hotel
Watching the sun
Creep up over Barcelona

And I wondered if Jenna was seeing it too somewhere
Maybe right next to me

Because even though you never know how far someone is from you
You never know how close they are either

Sincerely,
Mr. Robert Brown