Friendship: SPLIT HEAVENS

I swear a few palm trees were glad to see me this morning. The breeze was gentle, just gentle enough to let them lower their arms as I approached. Nobody else was walking at 7:30 a.m. so I bowed back. A small bird’s whistle wafted thru fiery red bougainvillea. My sanity must have been left in my apartment yet was singing a soft solo to me. The rhythm made the fountain in front of my building ripple, turn aqua. The sky was bluer than my daughter’s eyes. Mounds of Impatiens bloomed red, white, pink. The sun was brilliant, struck hard at the metal window shades on floor five, almost blinded me . I snapped my eyes closed so fast and spun around like a whirling dervish.

 

That this morning was not a rarity, I knew, but today it touched me in a place I had never been. It was glorious. I walked, walked further than usual, alert to every smell, color, movement. My spirits soared with the robins towards white candy clouds until an alarm went off in my brain. It was 8 o’clock and it was my turn to call Lenore in Tampa this week.

 

I dialed and began bubbling as soon as I heard her familiar, ‘Hi, Teri.’
‘What a special walk I just had.’ Getting only as far at the bowing trees, I was cold shouldered. My long time friend stuck a pitch fork in my balloon. ‘Big deal, Kid. It was a walk. A walk is a walk, is a walk.’ ‘Lenore, it was not just a walk. It was an experience, a very special experience.’ ‘So,’ said she. ‘It gave you something to do. Did you see Dancing With the Stars last night?’ Maybe I was nasty but didn’t care. ‘No, I don’t watch that muck. If I want to see stars, I just look up. Actors are actors, people wearing masks. If their masks are good enough, I’ll watch but dancing feet. Uh uh.’

 

Lenore and I have been friends for twenty years. This may be the final one. We have distanced ourselves more than across state lines. I listen as patiently as I can to her tales of Canasta wrangling, big scores, new friends, who said what to whom. I try not to criticize her, tell her I am glad she is content with her life and often add on , ‘Are you really happy in your small world?’ This was the day I did it again. ‘Don’t you want to do anything interesting besides cards?’ The heat in her voice almost burns thru the receiver. ‘I do more than you, Toni. I go to lunch with my ladies every Monday, we have light suppers together twice a week, and if there is a good movie we agree on, we do that too.’

 

Our weekly conversation could be taped and we wouldn’t have to bother each other any more.  Maybe next week, when Lenore calls me, I’ll make that suggestion.