A Boy's Prayer

at Smokey Row in Pella, Iowa

On Monday afternoon I was sitting in a booth with my head buried in my computer writing at Smokey Row in Pella. The place was packed with people home for the holidays, and a line had formed at the counter with perhaps 20 people waiting to order. The mood was festive. The coffee shop had been beautifully decorated for the holidays, and stockings had been hung nearly everywhere with care.

In the hubbub, I felt the warm presence of a small body standing next to mine. It was a boy, maybe six years old. Behind him was a girl, likely his sister who was probably a couple of years older.

The boy, light-skinned with blond hair and straight-cut bangs looked at me and said, “Is your name Bob?”

I don’t know this kid, I thought. How does he know my name? I looked around, thinking maybe I knew his parents or grandparents, and they were standing by. No one was paying attention to us.

“Yes, my name is Bob,” I said.

He smiled and asked, “Would you like me to say a prayer for you?”

I was surprised, thought about it for a second, and then looked back at my computer, realizing that I was about to lose the continuity of my writing, and said, “No, I’m good.”

He looked disappointed and started to turn away.

Disappointing children isn’t my thing, so I said, “No, go ahead. You do you.”

He smiled, climbed onto the booth beside me, and stood with his little hand on my shoulder where it stayed until the prayer was over.

“What do you want me to pray for?” he asked.

“Pray that you grow up to be a good man,” I replied.

He shut his eyes, bowed his head, and started to pray. It went something like this:

“Dear Lord, please let me grow up to be a good man, and let Bob live for a long time, and protect his health, so he can see me grow up good, and don’t let him drive into a ditch, dear Lord, or let a flood take him away or a tornado or let other bad things happen to him, and please help me be a good man.”

He opened his eyes, smiled, and looked at me.

“Amen,” he said.

“Amen,” I replied.

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Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and have a Happy New Year everyone.

I’m a proud member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Please check out our work here. Subscribe! Become a paid subscriber if you can afford it. Please and thank you. We need you. Thanks for being part of the team! Want to buy me lunch or a cup of coffee? Venmo @Robert-Leonard-238. My friend Spencer Dirks and I have a podcast titled the Iowa Revolution. Check it out! We can get ornery. And have fun! I also publish Cedar Creek Nature Notes, about Violet the Dog and my adventures on our morning walks at Cedar Bluffs Natural Area in Mahaska County, Iowa.