ELMS and OAKs....

FADE2BLACK

"What's up 13?"
"Nuthinmuch.. What's up wit you? I came by yesterday afternoon. I wanted to be nosy. See what was up, ya know?"
"What time?"
"About 6:55 or so.. that's the reason I missed "Everybody Hates Chris."
"Okay, you caught us at that window. Stepped out for a minute. But it looks good. You'll see it Saturday or Sunday."
"What you doing later? I want to go see Domino."
"Yea, I heard about that. The bounty hunter. Didn't she die or something?"
"I don't know. I'm looking it up on the net now. Uh, yea, an overdose. Just recently."
"An overdose? Well, that kind of changes my mind. Oh, I can't watch movies when I know people died like that. I thought she died while capturing somebody or something...."
"So what does that mean?"
"You know. Just...."
I cut him off, cuz I couldn't believe I was having this conversation with him.
"What time do you want to go?" I ask.
"Well what time do you think. I'm going to fold clothes until 11:00 am, then I'm going to dust, then....."
"That's scary."
"Why? I know, if it sounds like I have more than 24 minutes of clothes to fold, I do."
FADE2BLACK

I never fade to black our conversations because the detail, length, subject matter, whatever, expands years, minds, universes even. Sometimes I feel like I am in a graduate course, absorbing everything he has to say, then others, we are sitting aside one another, he eating clay, me glue in some kindergarten class somewhere. It feels as if I have known him all my life. One of the few people that keep me grounded... Sometimes we joke, knowing that we must've been married or at least close in another life, because somethings just click so naturally.... And it's been that way from day one.

He feels like an extension, my left arm... something I take for granted will always be there and work when I need it, I can always count on him. Sometimes I am jealous of our significant other relationships, because it keeps both of us pretty busy. But I'm happy that he's happy and vice versa. Each time we get to hang out or, like today, have simple, meaningless, and at times poignant conversation, I soak it in, knowing like a desert rain it may not come again in a while.... But I realize that with kindred spirits, as he and I are, sometimes it only takes a tone in a voice, a look in an eye, and immediately we connect. Able to sense where the other is at.

He will be my lifelong friend. And sometimes my stubbornness, or my desire to be detached keeps me from saying how much he and his friendship mean to me... I have an ELM and he is my Oak..... and to my Meliaceae, Mahogany... miss you get home safe.

I thank God for the forest that grows outside my village.....