Break Up Take 2

Break up take 2

No one knows how to manage it when friendships falter. Julie was my friend- a good one- in art school but a few years ago we went down the drain. For the second time. And I never knew why. Sometimes you do know. 

After each spring semester would end we'd drive to the Yuba River, lie naked on the rocks, working for the tan that we now know is a dumb idea.

We were both vegetarians. She liked wet rice. I liked it sticky. We'd cook giant pots of it and sit on the floor eating our dinners with chopsticks.

We laughed so hard i don't even know why but we made recordings of our laughter on cassette tapes and listened to ourselves laughing and then cracked ourselves up

more. We could never remember who had the tape last.

I went with her once to rescue another friend from a cult. I can still recall the chant we had to endure while waiting for the right moment to sneak her out. Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.

We traveled to Mexico together and even though I got sick there again the laughing prevailed. We talked about boys mothers dreams food art clothes music ideas.

She went with me to my abortion. After chastising me about being careless. She was more interested in sex than I was. She went to a workshop on finding her G spot. I was indifferent. She was class president. I was more of a stay in the back ground person trying to perfect my plastering techniques.

Our lives grew apart. Marriage / jobs. Divorce. Children. The usual stuff. At one point we drifted toward each other again but too much time had lapsed. Too many different choices made. I was invited to her house on cape cod and arrived only to be told there were too many guests and was pointed toward a campground. I tried not to feel slighted.

And then, the last time, each of us single again- but this time with children in tow- had dinner together with my parents- but my father - not himself- taken over by Alzheimer's- told her daughter she was pretty. He meant no harm. But this time they were offended.

We never spoke of it. And we never tried again.

BK July 2016