Kay smiled as she reminisced of her recent escape. The day had dawned cold and dreary but the sunshine in Kay's heart woke her like a warm spring morning. A quick stretch and a peek at the calendar confirmed that it really was here, after years of waiting. It was finally going to happen, on January 8th of 2011, her two best friends were going to meet!
Kay grew up in a small town out west. Not quite a farming community, at least Kay had never seen it that way. To her it had been the world. Two high schools, one Walmart, and not a formal restaurant for miles around. Still it had been home, and Kay loved it there. In her small town beginnings Kay had made many friends, but one friend in particular would show up in pictures of Kay's past for years back before she could remember. Parties in grade school, field trips in Jr. High, and too many photos in high school to even count.
It was during high school that the friendship really blossomed, but the college years cemented their souls together for good. When other friends moved on and faded in memory one friend remained strong as ever. Her dear friend, Traci.
During the years after college Kay and Traci were separated by miles and life circumstances but every chance that could be spared they would sneak in a phone call or short visit and the girlish giggles would resume as if there had been no time or distance at all.
Though the two were truly kindred spirits, life did make constant contact impossible. After all, one can't have milkshakes every Friday night with a best friend who lives 5 hours away.
In time Kay and her small family would leave the only world she knew for new opportunities the small town could not offer. In her new surroundings Kay would feel small and insignificant for quite some time. She needed a friend, and she would find that friend in Ione.
The friendship began as a casual acquaintance. They met while working together in a church calling. The next year would see them together often in areas of responsibility or as neighboors doing good deeds for one another. And then the test of any true friendship came, Kay was once again moving.
This time the move was only across town, but time would tell which casual acquaintances would fade into past memory and which would grow and flourish. Ione's was a friendship which grew and flourished, and over then next several years Kay and Ione would become best friends.
Since Traci and Ione lived in different cities yet shared the same best friend they came to know much about one another without ever having the opportunity to meet, or talk. Kay was constantly rattling on about them to one another and saying how well they would get along and that someday they would have to meet... and the day was finally here.
It was with a small amount of apprehension that Kay entered the IHOP that had been pre-decided on. What if they don't like each other? She thought nervously. What if the whole brunch is filled with awkward silence? There was no need for these silly worries though. The two strangers met one another with a huge hug of friends past and instantly the girl chatter began.
The three friends sat in their booth munching away on their pancakes and giggled like teenagers as they talked about any topic that came around. At one point they felt rather sorry for the man in the next booth who began playing music from his phone during their conversation on breast feeding. Perhaps they had gotten a little loud, after all, one trait they all shared was the ability to forget their surroundings and enjoy a boisterous conversation.
The waiter was slow, the food delectable, and the day pure perfection! After hours of compromising the booth at the IHOP the three ladies decided it was time to begin wrapping up their joyous escape. The babysitters would be getting restless by now and nap time was fast approaching. As the conversation wound through it's ever so slow close Kay began to notice a gentleman who seemed to be passing their table a suspicious number of times.
At first the man would seem like an ordinary IHOP patron. An elderly gentleman, passing their table to go to the restroom and then passing again on his return, and nothing more. But soon his face became familiar. Kay realized he had passed their table a minimum of five times, each time becoming more slow and deliberate as he passed. Kay' s skin prickled at the lear of the man as he passed another time. He didn't even seem to be hiding it anymore.
Kay tried to ignore the suspicions at the corner of her mind and get back to enjoying the precious few moments she had left with her two friends. Quietly something changed. Kay felt it run up her spine like a creeping spider. A glance over her shoulder would confirm what she already knew. There he stood lanky and lean with a look of lust in his eye as he stared openly at the booth Kay and her friends were occupying.
That was it, Kay could take it no more. With a fierce look in her eye Kay whirled to face the stalker and calmly asked. "Is there something I can do for you?"
"Yes." the man replied with his craggy teeth now showing through his greedy smile. "I have been undressing you with my eyes, and would enjoy a real show."
"Not on your life!" Kay stated as she stood and poured her smoothy over his head "WAITER!"
Kay giggled as she was startled back into reality. No such thing would truly happen. Her day dreams had taken her away when she had seen the man standing and staring openly at them. She wanted to confront him, tell him he was disgusting and rude, but the truth of the matter was that Kay was not that kind of a person, and she didn't have a smoothy to dump on him anyway. Instead when she saw the man openly staring at them she quietly gave a look to her friends to alert them of their uninvited company. Traci and Ione had noticed him too. Surely one of them would stand and point out the mans rude behavior and ask him to get on with his own business. But instead the three friends continued their conversation whilst exchanging facial expressions that carried a completely different unspoken conversation.
After time the old man left and gratefully was never to be seen from again. Kay, Ione, and Traci left their long emptied plates and went to the register where they would elicit the help of the cashier to take their picture. Though Kay couldn't help but notice how her extra 40 lbs looked clinging to her not so thin frame, she loved and adored the picture. It would be a cherished reminder of a beautiful day she'd had with her two best friends.
The three hugged in the chilled winter air of the parking lot as they said their goodbye's and vowed to one another that this event would not be the last. They each had to return to their own lives but they knew that these friendships were the kind that eternity is made of.
In the later hours of the day, after life had resumed it's normal course Kay's phone rang. It was Ione, calling to thank Kay for their friendship. Ione left Kay with this final and striking thought. A thought that would forever after accompany the photo in Kay's memory. "I know that we were all friends in the life before this, thank you for bringing us together again."
Kay lay in bed thinking of the day. A perfect balance of laughter, friendship, and even a creepy old man to give the memory a special twist. Indeed it had been a perfect day.
