Healing

Tigger. Wouldn’t believe it, but man, when he turned thirteen he became a handful. Nothing that Mick did. He just got bad. Running into abandoned towns. Bringing back souvenirs. I think he was twelve the first time he got drunk. Mick kicked his ass couple times, but really how much would Mick kick Tigger’s ass? He was still little. So the summer before his fourteenth birthday, Jonah Briggs offered to take Tigger in and ‘work’ him as he put it.

It backfired and Tigger loved it. He was the youngest soldier in Briggs’ army. Started serving small stuff at fifteen and went up against the “Dins,” as Tigger named them, at sixteen. He’s good at taking them out. He calls them that because they are survivors who try to act like the old school Indians. They never see Tigger coming. He’s the best man for the job. Tigger is fearless and I fear Tigger one day taking over for Jonah Briggs. I think Jonah has the good sense not to allow that. God help us all if he does.

Me, well, I made the grave mistake of praising Lars Rayburn for saving Mick. I told him he was my new hero and I wanted to save people like that. At the time I did, all in his glory for saving the man who was a father to me. But I was like thirteen, come on. Lars knew that had to change. Unfortunately, Lars immediately took me under his wing. I went to the Lars Rayburn School of Hard Knocks. We started with basics, stuff you learn in school, and recess was anatomy and medical stuff. Kurt and Henry started dividing their living time around all the communities. When they were in Lodi, Lars made me learn from them. I can remember Kurt telling him, “Lars come on let the kid go play.” And Lars would say I can play when I’m older.

Really?

I still have yet to go out and play like I did. But I am grateful for Lars because I am reluctantly the next generation of doctors. People call me the next Lars Rayburn. I don’t see it. Growing up, everyone wanted to be like Lars, not because he was this brilliant guy, but because he shook the president’s hand. In our small town, that was a big thing.

Perhaps I’ll be a legend as well for something other than medicine. That would be cool. Actually, I just may be. Six years ago, I achieved a big dream of mine and it wasn’t being a doctor.

Like with Lars, maybe one day parents will say to their kids, “You wanna grow up to be like Chris Roberts, don’t you?”

And instead of saying, ‘he shook the president’s hand, you know’. They’ll say, ‘He’s the one who brought back professional wrestling.’