Sue is a patient, indefatigable, loving mom who deserves the credit for raising our son, Jack, to be the man that he is. I remember Jack’s first few minutes at Lenox Hill Hospital. I’d read or heard somewhere that newborns can’t really discern much more than shapes, but as the delivery nurse held him, Jack cocked his head and checked me out for a few seconds.
Then he looked at Sue for a full minute. Makes sense. Sue is much better-looking than me, even right after giving birth.
Jack has always been a good storyteller, though he says he has zero interest in being a writer. I can’t blame him for that. The kid is smart. “Phi Beta Jacka” at Brown, as we joke and try to keep his head from swelling.
When he was five, I had to go out to Hollywood on business. I asked Jack, “Are you going to miss me?”
Our little five-year-old shook his head back and forth. “No, not really,” he said.
That threw me for a loop, startled me, for sure. “You’re not going to miss me?”
Jack shook his head again and said, “Not really, Daddy.” Then he dropped the punch line on me. “Love means you can never be apart.”
And he says he doesn’t want to be a writer. Hell, he’s probably secretly writing a novel and already has a book deal.
When Jack was a little older, I told him that any good lines that he came up with while living in our house belonged to me. So here I am using one: Love means you can never be apart.
At six or seven, Jack wrote and illustrated his first novel, Death of the Butterfly Catcher.
It opens with the Butterfly Catcher boarding a plane. He travels halfway around the world. Doesn’t catch the butterfly. Next, the Butterfly Catcher gets on a boat. Travels another great distance. Doesn’t catch the butterfly. Finally, he gets on a train. Jack loved trains as a kid. The Butterfly Catcher catches the butterfly on the train. He gets off. Isn’t looking. Gets hit by a train going the other way. Death of the Butterfly Catcher. The butterfly flies away.
Jack has the gift. Good beginning, middle, and end. A perfect story.
From the perfect son.