I haven’t seen my high school friend, Irene, since we graduated twenty years ago. She moved to Portland last year and this is the first time we’ve managed to get together. The experience was surreal and great. It was as if time had not passed, except of course that it had. A lifetime, really, so it was like time-traveling. I mean, the last time I saw her, we were both eighteen.
In my attempt to imagine what she would look like, I imagined that her mother would come to the door. Nope. Aside from a different haircut–which I didn’t expect–she looks pretty much the same as in high school. Mannerisms are unchanged. We did some catching up, and it was interesting to see where our lives diverged and where they stayed on the same path as we had set lo these twenty years ago.
The one moment of unexpected delight for me–you must understand that Irene was there with me during my Whovian days. We each had our Dr. Who characters. (She asked if I still had my scarf. I do.) So, being able to say “My story is coming out in the next Dr. Who anthology,” was tremendous fun because Irene knew exactly how cool that was for me.
It’s too bad we couldn’t get together sooner, but I’m awful glad we managed it today.
I still have my scarf, too.
Ah, I see my best friend from high school almost every year for the last eight or so, but there was a gap of over ten years in which we didn’t see each other.
We meet in Yakima and always go to the same places; a deli, two thrift stores, the big antique mall. Last time we were in the antique mall, one of the women working there eavesdropped on our babble over various finds, and she said, “You two are just best friends, aren’t you?” April said, “Yes.” The woman said, “You spend a lot of time together, don’t you.” We laughed and April said “About two days a year!” And the woman said, “Well, it must be one of those friendships where it feels like no time at all ahs passed in between.” Which it is. That’s rare and I hope this reconnection ‘takes’ for you. There’s something so rare and precious about friends who knew each other as kids. Of course, you are moving to the other coast…
My best friend from High School is a missionary nun who spent her life working with impoverised people in So.America. We have lived lives completely divergent from one another and we’re only seen each other probably twice in the past fity-five. One of those two times we took a six pack of beer, rowed out to the middle of the lake, kept the beer cold on a rope in the water and proceeded to gab as if we had just said ‘goodnight’ the evening before. It is amazing how strong the bonds of friendship remain through time.
Yeah, you guys get it too.