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Little Eddie<br />
By: Jonny Bird / Here’s Jonny<br />
can still remember the smell of the cracked<br />
I brown leather and cigarette smoke from Little<br />
Eddie’s secondhand silver wheelchair. Those<br />
cracks absorbed the smoke from the adults who<br />
smoked, and they all smoked.<br />
I hated that smell but loved seeing Eddie.<br />
My Grandma Millie’s neighborhood was full of kids, and the field<br />
between my grandma’s house and the Jennings’ house was “home<br />
base” all summer long. We’d play kickball, baseball, or just tag around<br />
the broken-down cars, and then cool down with grape Kool-Aid from<br />
my grandma’s plastic pitcher, or the garden hose at John Decker’s<br />
house.<br />
14<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2024</strong><br />
Each day, Eddie would be pushed out onto the edge of the field by his<br />
younger but much bigger brother, Anthony. Eddie was older than the<br />
rest of us kids, but he was smaller than everyone but me. I was always<br />
the runt of the litter.<br />
Eddie’s arms were like buggy whips and I’d have to hold his hand up<br />
to give him a high-five, but I would always see his big smile when our<br />
hands slapped.<br />
Even though he was in pain, Little Eddie always had a smile for me.<br />
He had a smile for everyone.<br />
Little Eddie had advanced Muscular Dystrophy and couldn’t move<br />
much by my eighth summer, but he was an inspiration to me. His<br />
mother would bring out medicine around noon. I didn’t know what it<br />
was, but it seemed to make him feel better.<br />
Every day, we’d slap hands, he’d smile, and the rest of us would play. I<br />
would catch a glimpse of him from time to time and I could tell he was<br />
hurting. I didn’t understand much about the world, but it sure made<br />
me sad to see him in pain.<br />
Little Eddie passed that summer I turned eight, but I never forgot<br />
how he made me feel when we slapped hands. His smile was bigger<br />
than the pain, bigger than the disease, and bigger than my loss. He<br />
helped me learn that tomorrow is never promised to any of us.<br />
I never forgot that lesson. Bless you, Little Eddie!<br />
Jonny Bird is the entertainment host of all Vegas Voice shows. Have<br />
an idea or suggestion? Contact Jonny via email:birdlandmusic@<br />
hotmail.com
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