happy birthday F

on faris'
ninth birthday
my mom decided
that instead
of throwing a party
we'd invite
some of his friends
to go see
"king kong"
in this old theater
downtown
el paso
i'm not sure what happened
but when it came time to gather the movie troops
before movie time
the only guest standing on our front lawn
was mom's elderly friend
agnes abraham
"agia"
the ditzy el paso version
of lucille ball
except she sounded like maude
maybe the invites never got out properly?
maybe nine year old kids were afraid of king kong?
poor faris couldn't help feeling like he had no friends
i felt terrible for him
it was so demoralizing
i know it hurt
and probably left a decent sized scar
on his nine year old psyche

so we went out anyway
and saw kong
jessica lang tore it up
kong was big and terrifying
then sad and pathetic
the four of us
sat in an upstairs balcony box
kind of like you do when you see an opera
it was a weird old theater
i still remember the uncomfortable feeling
of knowing my brother was in pain
and wishing i could do something to help
but there really wasn't anything that i could do
other than suffer silently through the movie
afterwards
i think we went home
and had some cake
and ice cream
it was so anti-climactic
with no party guests
my mom was her usual chipper self
writing it all off with optimistic theories
on why no guests attended
i'm sure if i could recall her reasons
they'd now be hilarious

sadly
it's my brother's only childhood birthday
that i actually remember

i think it scarred me in some way too

so
happy birthday faris
i hope this one was better for you
than that one in '77

love

s