Friendship

Song Playing : ' Hey You ' - Pink Floyd

'Hey you, standing in the road
Always doing what you’re told,
Can you help me?
Hey you, out there beyond the wall,
Breaking bottles in the hall,
Can you help me?
Hey you, don’t tell me there’s no hope at all
Together we stand, divided we fall....'


I was home , sick , from work yesterday and so was in bed sleeping when I was awoken by the sound of my name.
Groggily I slowly got up , unsure whether I had dreamt being called to , my hair stickin up all over the place like a birdsnest with ADD-afflicted baby birds as residents.
Walked out to my kitchen and looked outside.
Not a soul stirred outside.
Hmm ok nevermind then...
An hour later I emerged and walked downstairs to go to the supermarket and found a bag that had been pushed under my fence , evidently with the aid of a big stick lying , guiltily , nearby.
It had a book inside and an envelope with ' To Teens' written on it and knew instantly that it was Lisa that had been outside earlier , calling me.
I looked at the book inside the bag , turned it over to read the back.
I wont write the entire synopsis , just parts.

Its called ' Truth and Beauty - A Friendship '

' What happens when the person who is your family is someone you arent bound to by blood ?

What happens when the person you promise to love and honour forever for the rest of your life is not your lover , but your best friend ?

.... A portrait of unwavering commitment that spans twenty years....
...this is what it means to be part of two lives that are intertwined. This is a tender , brutal book about loving the person we cannot save. It is about loyalty and about being lifted up by the sheer effervesence of someone who knew how to live life to the fullest ....'

I 'awwwwwwww'ed' silently , smiled , and walked to the supermarket. Thinkin about her , thinkin about the almost twenty-one years of best-friendship we've clocked up so far.
Then it struck me.
The book that I have wanted to write , that I struggled to think of a story to fill it with.....
I am sitting on a goldmine of material , right there in our life growing up together.
Theres my first book.
Of course it will be fictional but I'm gonna plough the tonnes of experiences we shared as inspiration , for starters.

Then , when I opened her letter twenty minutes later , I had to smile and shake my head in wonder because , well heres an excerpt :

' Dearest Teens ,
Oh where do I start !?
You are the person who made my childhood hilarious ( hehehe).
I loved when you read to me in bed at nites [sic] when we had sleepovers.
We were inseperable...!
That was until when Ralf ' Walkie-Talkie ' came along .... !
Oh , the funny times ... we could write a book about it !
And we just might ... but not YET ! When we are old and grey... but you and I will never be grey ( hair dye ) ....'

She had also wedged a bookmark in the book , which looks like one she has used ..and the book looks like she has read it and passed it to me to read because she saw a mirror of us in it .. which I love.
The bookmark has a philosophical piece written on it about change.

' Change ; It can be exhilarating , annoying , challenging , and threatening. Sometimes you love it - a change is as good as a rest - sometimes you are uncomfortable with it. You resist it , endure it , fear it , cause it and HOPE for it.
Above all , at times you NEED it...'


In the letter she included old memories , in amongst present day news , that I had long since forgotten.
Such as the bit about how we nicknamed her b/f ( who later became her fiance and father to her two girls ) 'Walkie-Talkie '.
So I was standing at the supermarket , reading her letter and chuckling & smiling to myself.
As soon as I returned home from shopping , I sat down at my desk and started the book.