Adam and Bob
by Samuel Hernandez
"I've always wanted to walk down this slope, Bob."
"It doesn't really seem like a big deal. I can imagine you've walked down those steps often."
"Why use the steps? I want to see if I can make it down without them. I want to feel the crunch of the snow as it gets trapped between my boots and the ground. How's your wife Bob?"
"She's fine. We just went to the mall yesterday to buy something for Josh. Why are you thinking this now?"
"What did you get him?"
"Well we got him a model train. But not one of those plastic ones. Did you know the toy store in the mall still has real model trains? Made of stainless steel I think."
"Model trains?"
"Well Josh has been on this railroad kick lately. He downloaded this game and started to construct railroads."
"Do you think he wants to be a railroad engineer?"
"Could be."
"Did you know that the train passes by here every twenty minutes or so?"
"And I've never ridden the train. It just passes by and sometimes I stare into the cabins as they pass because I know that's what they are doing. They're staring at me, or my house, and wondering things."
"I just sleep on train rides."
"I suppose you've seen it all."
"I wouldn't say all Adam. Just enough to be happy."
"Are you happy?
"With Catherine, yes."
"I'm tired of just passing time--"
"Adam be careful. Are you sure you want to go down--"
"For just once I want things to happen like they should. I don't want to worry about what Sharon thinks--"
"Your knees Adam--"
"And I don't want to think about my children for one second. I want to stop and breathe the air I was breathing when we were both 18 and seeing the world."
"Just take them on vacation. Me and Catherine went up to Maine last year and we couldn't believe how orange the
leaves were."
"So you still appreciate nature?"
"You should have seen the way things looked Adam. It was really very relaxing."
"Just not this slope."
"There isn't anything special about it. It just is. It's your backyard."
"Sometimes I forget that nature exists."
"Are you feeling suicidal? You know the season and all. Maybe you aren't sleeping right?"
"Adam?"
" I just want to touch the snow."
"Touch it it's yours."
"When I was younger my grandfather told my father that I was a bad grandson because I would shake my
grandmother's hand instead of kissing her on the cheek. I thought about that a lot. They thought that I was a failure because I couldn't kiss my grandmother hello and goodbye."
"I'm not sure why you are telling me this. I hardly knew my grandparents."
"When Sarah was born I didn't know how to hold her. I thought that she was too precious, like trying to dip Achilles in the pool, knowing that he was perfect and the only place to be touched was his ankle, if that. So Sharon scolded me. We got into fights. It was ridiculous.
Know I want to know what's it like. What it's like to be touched. What it's like to feel someone else in an embrace and know that they belong there."
"Are you okay Adam?"
"Bob?"
"Yes?"
"Let's climb back up this silly hill."
"We're only half way down, don't you want to do this?"
"I want only one thing more."
"Pour me a shot and we'll talk about how much it's great to be married for thirty years."
"Just pour me a shot."
Samuel Hernandez is originally from Edinburg, Texas and has been published in the Houston Literary Review.
