Friends Beyond Time
I never knew where we were going, all I knew was this: I'm in the back of my parent's car. I'm 8. Eight! I'm getting old--oh no, not again! Ah, the dreadful feeling of age. We're going somewhere. Home, I hope?--probably not, not yet anyway. And the young sunset sky with twilight just above, how beautiful! But I've seen it a million times before already just like I'll see it a million times again.
And then, all I knew was this: I'm bored!
The resolve was simple: Bounce. In a car?...
Of cooouuurrrsse!
I zoomed out of the car through the liquid atmosphere and landed upon the nearest telephone pole to watch the vehicle my body looked back at me through pass on by. I leaped with great excitement from telephone pole to telephone pole, always ahead of the car my body was in, always impatiently--but patiently--waiting for the vehicle to catch up. Just as soon as the car would come by, I'd hop right on to the next pole, always ahead of the game.
Naturally, this eventually got old; I needed a partner to join me on my adventures above the streets. And out of nowhere my imaginary friend arrived. Slightly younger, but mostly shorter in height, he was a boy with dirty blonde hair who flashed some uncanny resemblance to myself. Together we would bounce like Sonic the hedgehog and Tails the two-tailed fox up and down the aisle of telephone poles lining the streets. This would mainly occur along Belt Line Road, near the cluster of roads named after planets and other astronomical matter.
However, I couldn't always find my friend. Sometimes it was as though he were suddenly snatched from our play, nowhere to be found. Regardless, after each playtime I would wish him well and tell him I hoped to see him again soon.
Fast forward a few years over a decade later to when I was 19 and employed at a bookstore. At the cashwrap facing the giant windows from which the setting sun's light poured through, I would wait for customers to arrive so I could put to action the extraordinaire of robotic salesmanship. I hated my job! But the rays of the Sun drowned out the dull, repetitive nature of the job, if only for a micro-moment. I danced in my mind with the warm glow of light particles reflecting from my skin. It's not so bad with the Sun's love at play.
A customer approached while I was still partially entranced. The sunlight engulfed him giving the loom of a bright golden aura surrounding his entirety. It was so bright I was blinded. When finally I got my focus together he looked at me perplexed as though he were about to ask, is everything alright? But before he could, we both found ourselves telling eachother you look sooo familiar!...
Come to find, however, we didn't share any of the same schools or hang-out spots, not to mention he was a year younger than I. In my school days I could be found either with the older kids or by my lonely; I was almost never with those my age or younger. It was unlikely that we had ever before met. Still, neither of us could shake this feeling that we knew eachother from somewhere... And I knew better with that mock-golden halo surrounding him that something greater was at play.
Both of us short of time, we exchanged numbers, I rang up his fantasy novel and we bid eachother farewell.
Sooner than later, we met. He took me to this lovely Thai restaurant named Jasmine's and introduced me to a whole new spectrum of beautifully colored, absolutely delicious food. I can still recall its crisp, new flavor and the rich environmental contours. Again the setting sun was glowing behind him, giving off that great loom I'll always remember him by.
When we recounted our predominate experiences of childhood we at last stumbled upon an experience in which we both recognized the whereabouts of our first encounter.
So, how do two people tell someone else that the two of you met at the tops of telephone poles where you'd chase eachother, jumping back and forth, across and through time in the setting sun just before twilight?
You rock, Devon. (^__-)b
