Six Months of His Life

Six Months of His Life

Michael J. Solender

February

The 29th day of the month that leap year found him in his mother’s womb. No harbor was offered by the cocoon from stinging poverty that already stifled his advance. Two before him hadn’t made it to term; lives cut short at the hand of a man with no self worth and even less regard for his wife. That lesson not lost on his mother, she would compromise no more. Pride set aside; she returned to her mother’s home from where she had been once cast away. Both women surprised at the underlying warmth that overcame past pasts, he was the greatest beneficiary. Nourished now fully, he’d know both women’s strength in the dawn of the spring.

April

Breach with umbilical cord twisted around him, this was only the first of life’s entanglements he’d unravel. Heralded by both women who bore him, they saw his fight and showered aspirations unto him, their hopes and dreams now his to realize. One day old, he had already united two fractured and feuding constituents. This would be his legacy. Purpose would find him in another spring. He never sought that which found him so readily.

June

Blooming Dogwoods provided lacy tatting, offering not so much shade as an accompanying visual feast to an hour in the park. The break was a welcomed respite from days upon days of wearing down lead in his pencil. Learning had swallowed him whole like a dog at his bowl after a three day hunt. At 23, a double Masters in Chemistry and Physics behind him, the siren of research called to him with such fury that his wife had to force him to eat, and then sleep. Bio-pharma was a universe of calculation, precision and error, he effortlessly navigated inevitable disappointment noting it put him one step closer to the elusive prize. Selflessly he shared his findings, protocols be damned. Solving Cancer’s riddle was too important for profit.

August

His 35th summer was pasty and thick; the midday sun on that 15th of August plastered her embrace on his brow’s narrow trenches. Tel Aviv was on the line and also colleagues in Bern and Rochester. They’d done it, they had replicated his study. Cancer cell abatement through use of his methods was proven in concurrent trials around the world. The cacophony of praise never let up after that day. The breakthrough research was only possible due to his work in creating the venue and vehicle for collaboration across political, economic and religious boundaries. Oslo and the world would bestow their honor to him, as would history.

October

As certain as the leaves begin their descent each October, his own branches relaxed their grip on his drive after summiting his Everest, 5 years earlier. How does one climb higher upon reaching the peak? Why does success bring out those determined to undermine it? He withdrew into himself determined to find challenges anew but none could approximate the exhilaration of that which he had conquered. Success was his Icarus. Surely there was more flame in the candle?

December

Not yet 41, they buried him as the sun retreated into waning winter daylight. A silent salute offered to this quiet giant, uniter and protector of men mostly unknown to him. Three women held each other close on the north facing slope where he would rest, their grief, their unspoken bond solidifying the reverence witnessed afar. One man. One man can make such a difference. He was that man.

About the Author

Michael J. Solender lives with his wife Harriet in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they obsess over their garden. He hails originally from the sometimes frozen tundra of Minneapolis, Minnesota. There he ignored (only once) his mother’s advice to pursue a career in medicine and became a Corporate Klingon. A recent Corporate Refugee, Solender is a freelance writer whose opinion and satire has been featured in The Richmond Times Dispatch, The Winston-Salem Journal, and Richmond Style Weekly. He writes a weekly Neighborhoods column for The Charlotte Observer and is a contributor to Charlotte ViewPoint. His micro-fiction has been featured online at Dogzplot, Full of Crow, Gloom Cupboard, A Twist of Noir, Thrillers Killers ‘N’ Chillers, Powder Burn Flash, and Flashshot. He blogs here.

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