Brother Parker
Brother Parker? I heard somethin’. I don’t know if it’s true. They say you up and died. How you gon’ do a thing like that? Do you realize how long it’s been since I tried to do any of this without you?
At parties, my sister, the Monkey, likes to pretend I have alzheimers.
“You know Hugh, don’t you?”
“Hugh, who?”
“Parker.”
“Huh?”
“Hugh…”
“yeah?”
“Parker!”
“Never heard of him. Heeeeeyy! Brother Parker!”
The way I remember it, I was leaving the Else School, and you were coming in. Passing in the doorway, my advice was, “Get the coffee early. They run out.” Next thing I knew, you were dean. “Do what? He just got here!”
“It’s been seven years, Boyd.”
“Oh, shut up.”
You told me once that your favorite president at Millsaps was Scooter. Mine is George, but, man, that’s a tough choice. Scooter is up there.
Keeping Millsaps going is so very unlikely. It’s like somebody asked us to balance bowling balls on the point of knitting needles, and yet we do.
I’m not putting you in the cold, cold ground, Brother Parker. They can’t make me. That’s not a fit place for you.
For so long, I wore my past like great rusted anchors, chained to my legs. I’ve finally torn them off and beaten their steel into new masts and new oars, and you are gone. What’d you do that for, Brother Hugh?
There’s a wind. New Wind! Do you have any idea how long it’s been since we’ve had momentum, actual, tangible, measurable momentum? What’d you go and do a thing like this for? I’m not puttin’ you in the cold, cold ground. They can’t make me. Magnolias flash their ivory brilliance. Honeysuckle scents the air, the cold, cold ground is not a place for you. There’s new wind, Brother Parker, where are you?
They told me you’d takin’ up with the tall woman in the choir. A wise man will trade all he has for a woman possessed of her own mind. You made the right choice. She was a pearl of great value. Children, grandchildren, brilliant people, a grandson fist bumps me. We have something in common, although they didn’t know what to call it when I was his age.
I told the Little Bird and the Angel that I have to write an elegy for a friend. I don’t care for this type of writing.
Though I denied it for generations, I can still read a balance sheet like it was a piece of music, if I could read music, I suppose. I can look at a piece of paper and see where a company is balanced and where it isn’t. Not that this is a particularly useful skill in the life I lead now, but you never know. “Owner’s Capitol isn’t money in the bank.” You said. Gee, tell us something else, Brother Parker.
That little CPA group you helped start is taking over the world. You and I share similar views on fiscal responsibility and government in the State of Mississippi. We’re both fiscal conservatives in a world where nobody gives a crap about fiscal conservatives anymore. They’re wrong. We’re right.
Daddy and Wingate used to fight over who I should believe about auditors. Daddy thought you should wrestle with auditors to squeeze out every last penny in a company’s evaluation. Wingate said that a harsh evaluation was the best thing an account can do for you. It shows you where your weaknesses are. Weaknesses and strengths, that’s kind of the whole game, isn’t it?
For a generation, I denied having any valuable business perspective. I made terrible grades in the Else School, and I am NOT my father, but, well, maybe I am. Commerce is the guts and clockwork of life.
I’m not puttin’ you in the cold, cold ground, Brother Hugh. The magnolias bloom. Honeysuckle fills the air. Watermelons are vermillion on the inside. They sound hollow when you thump them. Peanuts come out of the ground soon, and pots of salty boiling water wait. Fish wait to be baited. Grandchildren wait for Grandfatherly love, where are you, Brother Hugh, where are you? I’m not puttin’ you in the cold, cold ground. They can’t make me.
I am a gentleman. Your bride is my friend. I will watch over her.
If you have to go, and I suppose that’s been decided, go knowing how much we love you, the Monkey and me. You’ve been a part of everything I was a part of. Now I have to go it alone.
Good night, sweet friend. The world is less for the lack of you.
