“I see it”, I pointed, a very shiny blue car, radiating a sparkle that can only come from care. Driving into MY driveway, to meet ME! As he gets out of the car, I feel the energy and hope radiating off him. Stepping into the dirt driveway in a pair of nice “play” clothes he shows me and my mom that he is professional but with an air of funness to him. He greets me and my mom and does not even notice anything wrong with her, amazing. As soon as we met, I saw the dog in the back of the car looking like he wanted to play.
What kind of dog is he? I asked, truly hoping he would take me over to see him.

“Findaball”, he yelled out in his sharp German-sounding accent.
The dog bolted into the front seats and leaped out the front window with a yellow ball in his mouth, came over to him, dropped the ball, and looked to see what way it would be thrown.

“NO” he said, as the dog immediately came over, picked the ball up and looked up at his owner with obedient sadness.

“Blitz, him” he directed as he pointed to me.

The dog, happy that he could play once more reached out to give me the ball. He gave me the ball! Me! I took it and threw it as hard as I could and then Blitz actually went after it.

“He’s coming to pick me up. He’s coming to pick me up! He’s comin’ to pick me up!!!” He is driving into the school parking lot, I never had anyone pick me up at school, I always had to ride the bus. But today he is driving into my school to pick me up. We are going to a place called Ascutney Mountain Resort, It’s a ski resort and he owns it or something. Today we get to ride in his shiny Lincon Town Car and go to a ski resort. Who cares that there is no snow, I still get to help at the office.

I think he thinks I’m weird, I’m quiet and he is not. I know he wants me to talk more, but it’s hard because I still don’t know him that much. I’m not that shy but I still keep mostly to myself because I really don’t know him that well.

“What’s Five plus Five minus Six plus 3 plus 5?” he would ask.

“Twelve” I replied right off.

“Ok let me see if you can do a hard one,” he stated as he gave me one.

“…” I sat riding in the car thinking wow that’s a bunch of big numbers “it’s more than 16,350 right?”

“You have to find it out”

“I think I got it, 16,395.” I timidly replied after a few more minutes of math in my head.

“You have to know, do you know?”

“Yes”, I half whispered “…I think” I trailed off.

This is how every car ride went; he would ask me math questions and I would answer. This simple math started our relationship. Then one day I asked, no I told him “ok my turn.” And I would ask him some math questions.

Once my “big brother,” this man has made such a difference in my life. From that first day that we met to this last Thanksgiving dinner with MY family our relationship has changed. Now my legal guardian John and Lucille are the people I value most. When they went into this “partnership”, they were expecting to take a little kid that had no dad out 3 hours every-other week. When that did not work out I would spend whole weekends and eventually whole vacations with my “new family”. My freshman year in high school, because of the death of my mom, I finally became one of their family legally.

Just like Blitz brought me that ball later in the day his owners have brought more to my life and my family then I could have ever imagined that fun-filled afternoon.