Saturday, March 8, 2014

Once upon a time

Once upon a time there was a girl named Jennifer. In high school,  she had a very awesome friend named Sam. Truth be told, she had a huge crush on him. He was just everything she liked.... long hair, played guitar, funny, smart. They were best friends. One day Sam called her and told her he sometimes thought about asking her out but he didn't want to risk not being friends. Jennifer convinced him they would be friends no matter what happened. They "dated" for exactly one week. It was a little strange. During that week, Sam opened up a lot about his mother.  The note he wrote to her to break up with her told her that his mother had died a few years prior. It also said, "sometimes I think I love you and I want to tell you. " Even though he ended that phase of their relationship, Jennifer thought that was the most beautiful thing anyone had ever said to her and it remained burned into her memory for many, many years.

They did remain friends. Dating was awkward at best and they never even kissed. But they loved each other as friends. 

As life went on, they lost contact.  Then they found each other again. Sam was very odd, but Sam had always been very quirky and that was one of the things Jennifer liked do much about him. Unfortunately, Jennifer had just meet Bill and devoted so much time to him that she lost touch with Sam again. She never forgot him, though. Some people are just too much a part of you to forget.

Jennifer saw Sam a few times... once walking down the road, once across a store..  always too far away for her to call to him. It was frustrating. To know someone you missed was so close, in the same part of town frequently as you, yet you had no way to talk to them. She never could find him on social media and no phone number listed since everyone these days has mobile phones (not that she could ever in a million years work up the nerve to call him if she found a number for him...).

One beautiful warm Saturday, Jennifer took her kids to Hobby Lobby. They picked up some yellow yarn and checked out. As they were leaving, Jennifer held the door for a man following behind them.  She looked at his face and realized...

It was Sam.

Dumb with shock, she said nothing.

He said "Thank you."  And walked away.

2 comments:

  1. It's so hard to know what to do in that flustered moment, isn't it. And then it can be too late. Do you think he realised it was you? Was he waiting for you to say something?

    You mentioned his mother a couple of times as if it was important to the story but the connection isn't obvious. Was her death somehow related to him breaking up with you? Why did he talk about her in the note? Did you not know she had been dead for some years, even though you were already good friends? And it what way was he odd when you met up again later?

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  2. this really struck a chord with me...I dont know if its because I can see my own story tangled up in here or if the loss just resonates within me because I have felt something similar. I just tell myself that we never get over it, we just get through it. Thanks for sharing this story :)

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