Shared Joys

“We’re only 10 minutes away!”  She squealed into the phone.

“Ten minutes?!  I’ll be right there!”  I hung up, dropping everything.  The errands would wait- they were almost here!

I pulled into their driveway seconds before I saw the truck making its way up the path.  Tinted windows shielded the glare of the afternoon sun as well as their faces.  I sat back in my seat, and waited. I took a breath.

She would be sitting in the passenger seat.  The thought pasted a cheesy grin on my face, waving my hands in the air for her to see me through the window.  It had been two years.

As she came into view, I watched her gaze up at the new home. Her mouth dropped open as a smile bloomed across her face like a field of sunflowers in the light of dawn.  Her hands delicately touched her face and tears began to fall as she shook her head in disbelief- as if she couldn’t believe the moment was really happening.

Immediately, I recognized that familiar look of pure, raw joy.  It was the joy I saw as I watched her hold her newborn babies for the first time.  It was the same joy she had shown when she held my babies.  My joy was her joy.

We became instant best friends the day Mrs. Stejskal asked me to "show the new girl around" in second grade.  She taught me how to do a one-handed cartwheel.  I taught her how to water-ski.  We were inseparable. 

After graduation, I joined the military to ‘fight in wars' and she went to Africa to build orphanages. 

She is sensitive and pure.  I get angry when she doesn't stand up for herself.  Then I talk her into Chipotle instead of Chic-Fil-A. 


After 25 years, we finish each others’ sentences. I know how she thinks and she knows why I am the way I am.

Naturally, she was my maid of honor.  That day, she cried tears of joy for me.  One year later she married the Best Man.  I cried tears of joy for her.

We raised our babies together and had game nights every Saturday.  Then without warning, they lost their job and had to move.

Now three years later, they found a job nearby. We were neighbors again- 1300 miles from where we first met in Deer River.  They had a home again.  And I felt her joy.  Her joy was my joy.

(A pic of us in 2nd grade. I'm the one with the mullet- thanks Mom!)



*This piece was written in response to a Write on Edge prompt.