Hello. My name is Ellen. Do you want to play house with me over there? What’s your name? Oh, good. There are dolls and a stove and sink. We can have tea and cookies and I’ll show you my baby and you can show me yours. We can change their clothes and feed them a bottle and give them a bath.
Hello, again. We can sit together at lunch today, okay? Sure, let me see what you brought and maybe we can share. I have money for milk. Yeah, I can lend you a nickel. My mom won’t mind. She’ll say it’s what we do for a friend.
Hello. Oh! That would be great. I’ll have to ask my mother. She says yes, I can take the bus home with you from school and she’ll pick me up later. Is that okay? Yes, I can bring Barbie or my baby doll; which one? Yeah, your sister is a pest sometimes, but she’s cute. Your brother, his hair; it’s all over the place.
Hello? You did? Wow what size is it? A 34A? Cool. Does it have a bow in the middle? Yeah, that’s where I got mine too. He said that to you at school, in the HALL, in front of all his friends? What a jerk. Lipstick? Your mother said you can wear lipstick AND mascara to the dance? That’s nice. Can I borrow them to see what they look like on me? OH! I have such a crush on him. Don’t tell him!
Yo. When do we get out of here? Don’t these teachers know that the sun is shining, the grass is green, the beach sand is warm already? How long can we look out the window and not just fly out of it and get outta here? Yeah, your mom, my mom, So-and-So’s mom too. I guess they’re all crazy in their old age. Your hair looks so good today! What? Yeah, they broke up. He wasn’t right for her anyway. No, it wasn’t real love.
HEY, how are you? This is great. Can you do lunch? Well, I’ve got two kids now, but we could meet on Saturday, say 12:30 at Friendly’s? Yeah, the same one, on the Post Road.
Hi! Yes we had lunch and laughed so much we had tears and needed extra napkins to blow our noses. Who’s married, who’s got kids, who’s even divorced already, we caught up on all that. Her parents are alive but she mentioned a few kids whose parents have DIED already. Well, yeah, mine died already, but that’s not normal! No, she’s moving soon but we’ll write letters now that we’re back in touch. Gotta go.
HEY, is that really YOU? How long has it been? I know, it just goes so fast. Yeah, they’re all grown now, how about you? Did you marry? No, oh well. That’s cool too. Sounds like quite the career. You look happy. Oh, she’s been married three times, he’s had four wives. You remember correctly; we dated a while but something told me he was not going to be the one. Glad I listened to myself for once, huh? Yeah, I heard about them going to rehab at the same time for three months. Glad they don’t have kids. We’re doing okay. Job security is a little shaky for us too. Do I remember? Yeah, like it was just yesterday and here it is 35 years gone, used up, finished, complete.
Everyone at once at the big high school reunion: Isn’t this great? You look fabulous! They posted our yearbook pictures over there; guess we’re old now and need a refresher. LOL. Is he coming? Is she coming? Great! Oh, yeah, I heard, he’s been sick a while and she has MS and she’s a widow for almost ten years already. You don’t have email? HOW do you function, keep up with everyone? You surely don’t write letters still, do you? LOL. Oh, I’m sorry to hear about your sister. She was only a couple of years older than you, right? Yeah, we gave her a hard time, didn’t we, always in her hair. Yeah, so many with cancer, still fighting or defeated already.
Saw it on Facebook, Annette died.
“Now it’s time to say goodbye / To all our companyyyyy.
M I C–see you real soon /K E Y–Why? Because we like you!
M O U S E e e e e.”
Yes, I still remember the tune AND the lyrics. Funny how the mind works.
A bunch of people we grew up watching, classmates we grew up with, their parents, siblings—they’re dying. Seems like their show just started, that I just had dinner at their house recently, that the sister/brother wasn’t even that old yet. I know, if I’m this old, they must be not far behind, but it just…do you have a tissue?
Sometimes it just seems like the goodbye lasts longer than the hello, the friendship, the contact, the laughs and silliness, the notes and whispered secrets and two-hour phone calls and thousands of miles apart for decades. The photos of spouses, kids and pets exchanged, hearing about this one from that one, catching up on details.
But there’s love in all of it that makes up life and love lasts forever. We’ll be all right.
Goodbye. For now.
One of Billions 