Tuesday, September 07, 2004

My Best Friend - Then and Now... Part 2

It was summertime. The days were long and full. So much to do and so little time to do it before school started back in the fall. The summers seemed much shorter then. But that summer..the summer after third grade was probably the longest of my life. "JJ" and I talked on the phone at least every other day. About nothing and everything all in the same breath. (She usually called me because my mom was stricter about telephone usage. I wasn't allowed to call but maybe once a week). It was about the second official week of summer vacation and suddenly I realized, she hadn't called me in three days! Three days stretched to five...five to seven...a whole week had passed with no word from JJ! I couldn't begin to imagine what had happened. Mom tried to tell me that maybe her family was on vacation, but I knew better. She would have called to tell me where they were going, her little voice full of excitement over the prospect of a new adventure, and promises to bring me back something special. She was NOT on vacation. And then it came. The letter. "Private!" it said on the back. For "English's eyes only!" For me? From Texas? I didn't know anyone in Texas, and I never got letters. What was happening? Only one way to find out. I opened it. I read it once...twice...three times, still not comprehending. It was from JJ. A blurred, tear-stained letter full of a child's anguished disillusionment and pain. Without any warning JJ's parent's had packed up the kids and as many of their belongings as would fit in their stationwagon, and moved more than 800 miles, from our small Alabama town to Houston, Texas - leaving everything else behind... including me. This was the beginning of the end...or was it?

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