For Thursday, June 5, 1997, Drummer Column, Gibbs, 700 words

Like father

Grandpa Henry Hart sat by the phone waiting for it to ring and darned if he'd answer it. It could ring off the wall for all he cared. "Dog-gone it," he said. "Why won't it ring?" He scowled at the phone. He licked his thumb and cleaned the 3.

Four states away, John Hart, Henry's son, was pacing around his kitchen. The arc of his walk surrounded the wall phone, which he almost picked up twice. He was fixing to call his dad, whom he hadn't talked to in 17 years. A difference of opinion drove them apart long ago, and now it had become easier just to ignore each other.

That was all before Jimmy ran away from home. Jimmy was John's son, 16-years old and full of himself. John and Jimmy didn't see eye to eye on certain issues, like curfew, acquaintances, traveling to concerts on school nights. John wanted Jimmy to grow up clean and strong and wholesome. Jimmy wanted to raise hell for a while.

Jimmy had been gone for over a week when the women took over. Jimmy was living in a youth hostel for $10 a night in Portland, Oregon, and making friends in the park. Bridget, his girlfriend for two days, listened to him pour his heart out one night at a coffee shop about how miserable his home life was and how unreasonable his dad was and on and on. She tried to get him to call home, but he wouldn't. So she called home for him. She went through his wallet, got his home address, called directory assistance, called his mother and told her Jimmy was O.K. but a bit agitated and running out of money.

Wanda, Jimmy's mother and John's wife, called Grandma Harriet to tell her Jimmy was O.K. and ask advice on what to say to John when he got home from work. Wanda was afraid John would just drive to Portland and create a scene that would make matters worse.

Harriet remembered when John and Henry broke away from each other. It was a fight over Wanda. John wanted to get married before finishing college and Henry had already sunk a small fortune into John's education. He didn't want to see his boy go off track and waste money. But John was in love and that was that. The sad thing was that John and Henry had a lot in common. They were both stubborn as mules.

Harriet then had a notion. "I'll tell you what," she said to Wanda over the phone. "I'm going to tell Henry where Jimmy is staying. You tell John if he wants to find his son, he's going to have to call his father. I'll let Henry know, in no uncertain terms, that if John calls him, he darn well better keep that boy on the line long enough to end this feud or he'll be going to his grave a lonely man."

"Fine," said Wanda. "I'll tell John the same thing." She hung up and waited.

That evening John got home from designing a new Mars probe and hung up his coat. "Did we hear from Jimmy today?" he asked. His voice was withdrawn, mingling anger with fear.

"As a matter of fact," said Wanda. "Your father knows where Jimmy is, and he wants you to call him."

"He wants me to call him?" said John. His voice was louder, but hollow, mingling anger with longing. "Ha. Let him call me."

Wanda removed her gravity boots and grabbed a Gatorade. "Jimmy is agitated and low on money," she said.

"How do you know?"

"I guess he has a girlfriend. A Bridget called. Your father knows all about it."

"He has a girlfriend? At his age?" said John. "Where's the phone number?"

Wanda recited the number and John wrote it down. Then Wanda said, "I'm going down to the store for some manteca." She drove off in the family Cutlass.

John began to pace around the phone. Henry waited four states away, ready to kick the phone and the phone stand to the floor the instant it rang.

Jimmy just met this cool older guy named Ed. Ed has a hoop ring through his frontal lobe.