It'll Come Back

When Mike was 2, he wanted a sandbox, and his father

said: "There goes the yard. We'll have kids over here day and

night, and they'll throw sand into the flower beds, and cats

will make a mess in it, and it'll kill the grass for sure."

And Mike's mother said, "It'll come back."

When Mike was 5, he wanted a jungle gym set with swings that

would take his breath away and bars to take him to the summit,

and his father said: "Good grief, I've seen those things in

back yards, and do you know what they look like? Mud holes in

a pasture. Kids digging their gym shoes in the ground. It'll

kill the grass."

And Mike's mother said, "It'll come back."

Between breaths, when Daddy was blowing up the plastic

swimming pool, he warned: "You know what they're going to do

to this place? They're going to condemn it and use it for a

missile site.

I hope you know what you're doing. They'll track water

everywhere and have a million water fights, and you won't be

able to take out the garbage without stepping in mud up to

your neck. When wetake this down, we'll have the only brown

lawn on the block."

"It'll come back," Mike's mother said.

When Mike was 12, he volunteered his yard for a campout. As

they hoisted the tents and drove in the spikes, his father

stood at the window and observed, "Why don't I just put the

grass seed out in cereal bowls for the birds and save myself

the trouble of spreading it around? You know for a fact that

those tents and all those big feet are going to trample down

every single blade of grass, don't you. Don't bother to

answer. I know what you're going to say.'It'll come back.'"

The basketball hoop on the side of the garage attracted more

crowds than the Olympics. And a small patch of lawn that

started out with a barren spot the size of a garbage can lid

soon drew to encompass the entire side yard.

Just when it looked as if the new seed might take root, the

winter came and the sled runners beat it into ridges. Mike's

father shook his head and said, "I never asked for much in

this life - only a patch of grass."

And his wife smiled and said, "It'll come back."

The lawn this fall was beautiful. It was green and alive and

rolled out like a sponge carpet along the drive where gym

shoes had trod ... along the garage where bicycles used to

fall ... and around the flower beds where little boys used to

dig with iced-tea spoons.

But Mike's father never saw it. He anxiously looked beyond the

yard and asked with a catch in his voice, "he will come back,

won't he?"

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