Sweet Sixteen!

...it was on this day, sixteen years ago, that my oldest son, Dylan, was born.

He arrived on the coldest day of the year, having fought the inevitable to more than a week past his due date.  Roughly through the mid-way point of what would become a sixteen hour delivery for his soon to be mother, I decided on a costly mistake, by leaving the hospital in order to rush home and let the dog out for a quick bathroom break.

It was during my return to the maternity ward, a mile or so from the entrance, when the car decided it was simply too cold to cooperate any longer, and blew its water pump.

In 1997 I did not own a cell phone.  

And so, determined not to miss out on the birth of my son, I braved the frigid temps, and ran the final mile to the hospital...arriving in plenty of time to thaw out, contact the family mechanic, and catch my first born's grand entrance.

That son of mine would go on to become the starting tailback on the gridiron, the saxophone player in the high school band, and a 4.0 student in the class room.

That son of mine would also be the one to dig up a long forgotten manuscript, dating back several years prior to 1997, and find it, (in his words, the most entertaining short story he'd ever read.) 

"Dad, this story's gotta be shared!  Are you gonna do something about this, or should I?"  ...or something like that.

And so I thought about that old story, entitled The Fall.  I thought about a boy named Johnny, who spends an evening on the run, trekking across town in order to save the girl of his dreams from making a terrible mistake.

I thought back to that cold day in '97, racing to the hospital, my face burnt from a windchill temp below zero, in order to see the birth of my son, and found the irony too perfect to pass up.

Afterall, there are no coincidences ;)

And so, to my son, on his sixteenth birthday, I've dedicated to him, The Fall, available now on Amazon Kindle.

For a mere $.99, you can see what all the fuss is about.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Fall-ebook/dp/B00AZBIM68/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_1_BANV

Happy Birthday, Dylan ;)

El