When my son was born, I worried about
what kind of father I was going to be. My darkest fear – and this is truth –
was not being able to provide for him. Let’s be honest, working a grocery store
does not exactly provide for the most luxurious of lifestyles. In the
beginning, it was diapers and formula. As the years progressed, it was more
about Christmas presents. And as he was getting older, I wondered if I would be
able to afford a car for him. I wanted to give him all the things he needed. I
didn’t want him to go without.
Alex was fourteen when the apocalypse
went down. He is now fifteen and a half at the time of this writing. He should
have been prepping for driver’s education and worrying about getting his
license and fumbling his way through a number of girlfriends. Instead, he does
weapon stripping, cleaning, and reassembling drills with Kasondra and Brad. Hunter
and Lance have taught him considerably saltier language than he knew before
coming in here. He still censors his cursing (at least around me) letting me
know that he is still a kid at heart. His lessons now are less about algebra and
sophomore English and more about human anatomy and setting traps for staggering
undead.
It is not the kind of teenage years I
would have ever wished upon him but fate took that option out of my hands.
Seeing how he responded and learned from our elders like Janet and Fred, seeing
how he deals with people within our group, and seeing how he handles himself in
the face of adversity like a shamble of zombies, I have to admit I am quite
proud of the young man that Alex is growing into.
I think it could have been easy (if
not expected) for Alex’s social skills to slip but he seems to have adjusted
quite well all things considered. If, God forbid, something happened to me, I
feel like Alex could soldier on. I don’t feel like he is ready for a leadership
position yet but he would make a damn fine soldier who could be groomed for
command at some point down the road.
Obviously, this is not the world I
wanted him to grow up in, but we don’t get to choose that for ourselves. So we
just have to head down, power through, slaughter the dead, and keep on rolling.
I feel Alex is prepared for such an adventure and I have to gloat that we made
that happen. They say it takes a village to raise a child. While I highly doubt
that our crew constitutes a “village,” I would say we have done just fine with
what we had to work with…
