Friends: Jack C. Dental And Jon Purpose …..[long; Fiction; Friends Growing Up; Life] Poem by Bri Edwards

In neighboring hospitals (on the same day) Jon and Jack were born.
Jon came out with no complications, while Jack’s mother was accidentally torn ….
by Jack’s unusually large head before his mom was …..fully-dilated.
Her distress was so great that the doctor had Jack’s mom sedated.

Jack’s delivery room nurse wrote “female” instead of “male”. He got a pink cap.
For three days his mom called him Sarah, when he lay in her lap.
It took some doing to convince the hospital to just erase the “fe”.
[You’d think the nursery staff would have SEEN from where ……Jack did pee! ]

Jon’s proud parents smartly waited ….to buy their baby’s car seat.
That way when he was sent home with “Mom”, it held him nice and neat.
But Jack’s parents had been given a car seat, months before the birth,
and it was too SMALL, and the straps were too short to secure his girth.

Yes, Jack had a head oversized, along with the rest of him.
He’d grow up to be the largest kid in his classes; he’d NEVER be slim.
Speaking of classes, Jon and Jack went to the same pre-school.
At that early age, Jon was quiet and polite, while Jack played the fool.

I mean he was a born-clown. He even made the teacher laugh.
Sometimes he was TRYING to be funny, and at times he seemed half-
witted!
Though he too was polite and kind enough, “quiet” he was NOT!
On his pre-school report card (for “quiet in class”) a big “NO” he got.

In second grade, they both played on the school’s jungle gym.
While Jon moved quickly on it, Jack was slow; Jack was TALL as well as not slim!
In sixth grade, on the “monkey bars”, Jon swung cautiously to the landing.
Jack, a born-showoff, dropped when half-across, and broke a leg …..instead of standing.

In high school Jack played football; his opponents he’d often “cream”,
but as a “junior” (a bit careless) he once scored a touchdown for the other team!
Meantime, smaller Jon took up gymnastics, a sport that he loved.
No contact was needed with “opponents”; no need to tackle OR be shoved.

They both started dating girls in tenth grade ….when they turned fifteen.
They were close friends, and they shared what they HAD ……and had NOT seen, , , ,
on their dates, AND Jack showed Jon “girlie mags” …..he’d found in a neighbor’s trash.
Jack was the much more precocious teen; Jon was rally …………………..bash-
ful!

Jon was sure he wanted to be a doctor, long before he graduated.
Jack was going steady and was a star athlete; he thought “school’ was overrated.
But Jack’s mom and dad thought he should go to college on a …..football scholarship.
Meanwhile, Jon scored second academically in his high school class; he was ‘’smart ……as a whip”!

With his academic scholarship, Jon followed Jack to college.
The latter was going for football and girls, the former to get more knowledge.
So they were freshman roommates fifty miles away at old Cornell.
Jon spent hours at the library. Jack thought the girls were swell.

Jack had a girlfriend right away; he had several over four years.
One of them got pregnant, and she was ……..reduced to tears.
When Jack told Jon, Jon said “Didn’t you use protection, Jack? ”,
and Jack said “I would have, but I’d used up my last damn pack.”

Both Jack and the girl were “of age”, and decided to get wed.
But a month later she miscarried. The marriage was also dead.
So Jon suggested “divorce”, and Jack and Jill agreed.
From then on, Jon’s advice to “ALWAYS use protection”, Jack did heed.

Jack did (three times) score touchdowns for opponents, over four years.
BUT he scored so many more FOR Cornell, that (overall) he got cheers.
Jon saw a few of Jack’s games; Jon took HIS girlfriend ……………, Sue.
Jon and Sue got engaged and, guess what! Sue was premed too!


[Jack DID graduate on time, thanks to help from his football coach.]
Jon and Sue grew up in central New York (State) , and they wanted to be near their folks,
so they both went to Medical School in Syracuse, near Ontario Lake.
[Jack got drafted into the Army and “infantry training” he did take.]

Jack wrote to Jon that he thought he’d be shipped to “The Nam”.
Jon thought Jack sounded nervous, and tried to keep Jack calm ……
when he wrote back to him.
Then, while at “advanced infantry training”, Jack was playing football,
and a three-hundred pound opponent, on Jack’s ‘better leg’, did fall …..
HARD!

Jack was in a cast three months; the war “wound down”; no Nam for him.
He spent a year in Germany, at a U.S. Army base, found a fraulein (slim) .
Jon and Jack continued to write each other; they were GOOD friends.
Jon married Sue after two years of med school. Jack, his best wishes, did send.

Jack moved back to his mom’s house in Geneva; his dad had died.
Jack met Jill again at a Cornell reunion; they fell in love and got married. Jon cried,
but just a few tears …..of happiness (for his friend) .
Now BOTH Jack and Jill (Mr. & Mrs. Dental) lived with Jack’s mom,
and Jill quickly got pregnant ….., but this time all was calm.

Jack’s dad had been a mail carrier. Jack became one too.
Their daughter was almost three; they had named her Sue.
Jack had a driving route to deliver, but a few accidents he had.
He switched to a mostly-walking route, and got a dog bite (quite bad) .

Jon and “his” Sue wanted to have kids. They both interned in D.C.
Jon learned ‘family medicine’ and Sue learned thoracic surgery.
Though it was a challenge, she had their first child at age twenty-nine.
Jon got a job, nights, in an ER, while waiting for Sue to finish her time ……
as Chief Resident.

The Purpose’s son was named Jackson, which gave Jack a thrill.
Jon and Sue took jobs at Buffalo’s VA hospital; they are there still.
Sometimes they all get together, by traveling either East or West.
Though a bit different, Jack and Jon remain friends ….(“the BEST”) .

(August 29, 2015)