About 18-1/2 years ago it was, and that makes me feel old... early fall of 1986, a week or two into the school year. It was my sophomore year in high school, my first year at a large public school, recently moved to a new city, and the first time I'd ever ridden the school bus in my life.
I'd been in small Christian schools until that year, and so I was deep in culture shock by that point. My bus passed through the projects before picking me up, so my ride to school was as different as it could be from anything I'd experienced before. I had, however, made a friend - a quiet black girl named Zhamel, who offered me a seat next to her that first week, and became my bus-riding buddy throughout the year. Our bus arrived at school about 20 minutes before the doors were open, so Zhamel and I hung around in a large crowd of students waiting for the first bell.
One day, something caught my eye. An auburn-haired girl who had a class with Zhamel was standing around with us, and I noticed she was carrying a bookbag imprinted with "The Book is My Bag". I had a copy of "The Book", the Living Bible translation, so I recognized the logo and struck up a conversation. She commented on my olive-colored army jacket, which had belonged to my grandfather from World War II. My uncle Chuck had worn it for a time as well, and so above the pocket on the front it said "CHUCK". She thought that was amusing.
My life has never been the same since. Cherry became my best friend that year, and even though I moved nearly 100 miles away after that school year, our bond has remained. We were sisters at heart.
We used to daydream about finding a pair of identical twins to marry - but when she married her love in 1994, I thought that dream was unlikely. Her husband had a brother, but he was five years younger than I and still in high school at the time. Little did I know that God had plans for us, and 7 years and 11 days later, I'd walk down the aisle with her brother-in-law and we'd get to be sisters for real.
Cherry, my sister, my friend... Happy birthday. You are a gift from God to me.
A true friend is one soul in two bodies. - Aristotle.
(Cherry lived with me for about six months while I was in college... during that time we made some great memories, had a few "adventures", and wrote a few poems together, each contributing a word or phrase in turn until we felt we were done. The following is a poem we collaborated on after an evening spent being silly and "siezing the day" at one of our favorite haunts - Turley Park in Carbondale, IL.)
G R O O V Y I N T H E P A R K
Take my flower - I'm going to try something
watch me spiral around & under the moon
I am the Lizard Queen
laughing breathlessly and spinning in abandon
you've got to see the view from where I sit
the house with no walls to keep me in
over there at the end of the white unbrick road
I must sing or die --
there is so much to love about
Groovy.
cheriden 31 mar 91
that is so sweet. I still have my best friend from college. We met the first day of school and that was it. 23 years later, she's still the bomb!
Posted by: Pam | March 03, 2005 at 09:39 PM
Having had you in my life has made me a better woman.-- i love you so much!
Posted by: cherry | March 07, 2005 at 12:13 AM