I've been slacking on the writing lately so I decided to go back and do the old S.A.D. (wow, that's an unfortunate acronym) titles that I missed. Because I'm bored, I'm limiting my work on them to only 30 minutes so I don't overwrite. Yes, I do know that my goals for writing seem to be falling and falling fast. I foresee in a month from now I'll just be telling myself "write one word on a post-it, Jen! Just one word!" ;)
She was all smiles when I met her at the airport. Full of laughter and mischief and reminding me so much of home that, for a moment, I forgot where I stood. It wasn't hard to recognize her, even with the added makeup and the added years. I took comfort in the fact that the girl that I loved was still the same.
She whistled down a taxi like a pro and I gave a brief round of applause, delighting in the fact that I could still make her blush. Friendships like ours lent themselves to easy humor and easier humiliation. I'm sure that she had plenty for me in her arsenal. I couldn't wait to be at her mercy.
Dinner churned my stomach with spicy Thai food and the unease that comes with change. Change in the world. Change in my comfort zone. Change in her. She spoke fluently with the waiter. She nodded politely at power couples in the restaurant. She swallowed a pill and chased it with a drink.
She stayed with me in my hotel room, assuring me that it was better stocked than her apartment by yards. I bit back a joke about the minibar, unsure of the woman in front of me. She spoke with my friends voice and laughed with her eyes. She sat on the edge of my bed and I struggled to see past the girl I loved and recognize the woman she'd become.
She rose with the sun the next morning and I watched her pacing in front of the window, the entire city as her backdrop as she negotiated with terse words and low threats. She was a modern warrior, confident and strong. Facing the glass and iron of the city, she was no longer that girl with laughing eyes and golden pigtails. She had changed when she had come to this place, changed into a person I didn't know.
Yet, as she turned from the window and smiled, mouthing a quiet but happy hello, I decided that it wouldn't be hard to love this woman just as much as the girl I remembered.
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