HAVE IT
by Adam Berlin
n Nice, the drunk woman asks us the English word for the bird our two-year-old’s chasing. we say Pigeon. she says it’s the same in French and tells the man next to her with no teeth and a great drunk’s face that pigeon in French and English is the same. when my son drops something on the ground or floor, he says BIRDY, like it was on purpose, like he did it for the birds, like they’ll eat it (even if we’re indoors): bread, ice cream, a plastic spoon, a shred of napkin, a piece of olive we’ve de-pitted.
when we go to museums we look in shifts. i take the baby, my wife looks. she takes the baby, i look. i’m on baby duty and we sit under pine trees outside the Chagall Museum and i make up a pine-needle game. Picasso drew faces like a master then moved forward then moved again, his through-line always there, no gimmicks like Chagall’s little sheep in corners, little birds with too-big beaks. Picasso, even with quick brush strokes FAST, made bulls emerge.
here’s the pine needle game:
gather the kind of pine needles joined at the base like a V
say to the baby, V
pull needles apart
say to the baby, Not V
baby laughs
MORE
repeat
after V Not V, i make pine-needle moustaches and we look at the wind moving branches. he says MORE. he thinks I can make the wind. he thinks I can do everything (wind pulls, doesn’t push—physical truth).
then he says HAVE IT like the wind can be his like owning a balloon.
i
Author's Note
My wife and I vowed to keep traveling when our son was born, so we strapped him in (to his baby carrier or stroller or car seat) and took him on the road. It’s not always easy traveling with a baby/toddler, but there’s a special joy in seeing how a child views the world (the newness, the belief that everything’s possible) that, I think, mirrors one of the joys of travel, which is the heightened awareness of what’s around, from how a fire hydrant or road sign is designed to the way people in another country seem to approach life. When we travel and something hits me, I’ll write it down in my Notes app, and, usually, that impression leads to another thought or memory, so I’ll keep writing until whatever I’m experiencing or thinking or remembering runs out. Some of these notes become starting points for writing I do when I return. HAVE IT shows a few moments from a trip that ended in Nice. They’re simple moments, moments we could have only had with our child, more vivid (and even meaningful) since they happened far from home.
Adam Berlin has published four novels, including Belmondo Style (St. Martin’s/The Publishing Triangle’s Ferro-Grumley Award) and Headlock (Algonquin), and a story/flash collection All Around They’re Taking Down the Lights (Livingston/Tartt First Fiction Award). His non-fiction micro-chap And Paris Is Beautiful Too is part of Bull City Press’s INCH series. adamberlin.com
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Published Aug 2026 - CNF