Small Detour

Driving through Vermont, we stopped in Rutland to meet my father's childhood best friend, Jon Levine. 

Jon is an artist, and hasn't seen my dad in probably a dozen years, but he speaks so fondly of my dad, like a brother. He says my dad was a primary source of inspiration to him. When pressed why, how, he answered confidently, without hesitation, they just went everywhere together. "We just hooked up, you know? We did everything together. He looked out for me...he was kind, like no other guy in the whole of Five Towns." 

They trolled the Village together, Chelsea, they travelled. Jon even followed my dad out to Goddard College in Vermont.  

I didn't really learn much about my dad from talking to Jon, as I had hoped, but it felt like a mitzvah to spend time with him anyway.