Prince Charming - A Tribute

Prince Charming - A Tribute

1) My father used to tease him endlessly over his appearance.
"You look like a scruffy dog! Do you ever come your hair, boy?"
"It's the style Mr. Sherlock." He'd always reply with a grin and be sure to show up at my house the next day with it extra messy.

2) It was a week before my first year of grade one, a week before his second shot at it.
"Hi. My name's Michael."
"Hi."
"I like your coat."
Well that was it; he was endeared to me for life.

3) We used to argue ferociously over who would get the last Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. When we split it he would give me the bigger half...most of the time.

4) I asked his mother once why she named him Michael. She laughed and flashed that grin, identical to his own, that meant mischief was about. "He was my little angel when he was born... and Jesus was already taken."

5) Michael forced me into a life of energetic happiness. I had to be in order to keep up, whether it was racing around the block in a game of Hide and Seek Tag or dancing on his dining-room table to Aqua's "Barbie Girl".

6) He was the first person I told when Mom got sick. He was the first person at my side and the only one during those years able to make me laugh. He sacrificed his childhood right alongside mine and together we grew up far too fast.

7) Goofily he pranced around the hospital wings, to the utter annoyance of the nursing staff, one of those paper masks held to his face with the nose of a pig and grin of a Cheshire cat drawn over it in permanent marker. It was to save him from the toxic "hospital stink" and to save me from having to face reality for that brief moment of laughter.

8) At my mother's funeral he did not leave my side for a second. He even challenged if I needed him to follow me into the washroom. Finally he stopped me, his expression so sombre that it somewhat shocked me. "Karen I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you from this."

9) Karen: "You know the whole world would be better off if political leaders would just listen to their mothers."
Mike: "What? Eat their vegetables so they can grow big like Hulk? No thank you!"
Karen: "No... grr... Play nice!"
Mike: "Oh... well that would work."

10) When he was 17 he fell in love with a French girl who was four years older and had a son who adored Michael to pieces. I remembered when I started grade seven French he had poked fun at me, snatching my French books from off the desk and waving them around. "What do you need this stupid French language for anyways?"

11) Mike: "Let's have a party."
Karen: "What kind've party?"
Mike: "A funeral."
Karen: "What?"
Mike: "Yea! You can invite that guy who's always hanging around you."
Karen: "You mean Mark? My boyfriend?"
Mike: "Yes that's him! We'll send him an invite that's set in stone."

12) Michael was famously close to the green-eyed monster. When I started dating he would go out of his way to drive the guys away. Mark was a special case to him. Mark was a dead end (or dead man) in his eyes. I was guaranteed happiness and financial security... if I stayed with Michael.

13) "I'm sick. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner."
"How long have you known?"
"Maybe two months, three possibly. Don't be angry Karen... I didn't want to hurt you."
"Well fuck, Michael! That one blew up didn't it!"

14) He came home once stinking of marijuana and cheap beer. His doctor found out and only shook his head, lecturing sternly. "You can defeat this cancer easily Michael. You're young and strong. You're just too stubborn and stupid to see how fine a line you really are walking."

15) "Marry me."
"No."
"Marry me."
"No."
"Marry me."
"I said no, Michael."
"Okay, just checking."

16) Chris was the one who called me. "Around 10:30 he was running an errand for Nancy and I, Karen. His car was struck by a pickup truck, a drunk driver. He's in the hospital with some serious injuries. They don't know if he'll survive the night."

17) He was staying with Chris and Nancy while seeing some of the best doctors in America. June 27th, 12:22 p.m. At least the cancer didn't win. He was only 19 years old.