The summer I turned ten, my family moved to a small town in southern West Virginia. A girl named Sheri lived around the corner and we became good friends quickly. We were pretty different. I was uber-geeky and drama-prone, short and scrawny with fuzzy red hair. She was tall and blond, even-tempered and good at volleyball. Sometimes, though, you just click.
We were best friends during sixth and seventh grade, mostly. When we got into an argument about something mysterious (even at the time I wasn't sure what the problem was), we didn't talk to each other for a few weeks. I was fiercely, horribly lonely until we patched things up. Life is better with a best friend in your corner.
Her parents' marriage foundered when we were in eighth grade; she moved out of the neighborhood and into an apartment in a different school district. We saw each other occasionally until the next year, when her mother moved back to Iowa. We exchanged a couple of letters, but that was all.
I looked for her last year on Facebook -- no dice. A few months ago she friended me and we exchanged a string of messages, catching up. She said they'd be traveling through the Midwest in July, and I invited her to stop by for a visit. At 4:00 yesterday afternoon she emailed me: Are you free for dinner? I called her right back and started throwing a meal together.
(One of my favorite things about my husband is that I can call him at 4 in the afternoon and say, "Hey, Elwood, my childhood friend is having dinner at our house with her husband and three children. How do you feel about backing out of your ultimate Frisbee game?" -- and I can be reasonably certain that he will say, "No problem.")
She looks just the same. Her three kids are the same ages as my middle three, and they all got along. Her husband and my husband have similar backgrounds (hey, Rob, he works at Oak Ridge). It was a completely unexpected way to spend the evening, but OH I am glad she sent that email.
Sometimes Facebook is a ridiculous time suck and font of drama. But you know, sometimes it's a really good thing.
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