A Ring, a Date, and a Sinking Ship
My best friend, Shanna, called the other day and announced her engagement to her biker boy, Joel. I said yeah, I'll be Best Woman. I figured I'd have a year to plan my attire and talk her out of marriage. Nope. The other shoe fell tonight when I clicked the talk button of my cell phone. She has a ring (Sears, a quarter carat, on a payment plan, God bless him), a date (December 7th), and a Theme. The Titanic.
"Uh, Shanna? The 7th is my birthday and I think I have other plans. Geeze, that's quick. And isn't the Titanic a bad omen? A sinking ship? What the hell are you thinking?"
Shanna laughed and laughed, as if we were dissing men we have known, tossing back blended drinks and eating piles of nachos.
"Birdie, you are so funny! You know I love that movie! And you are going to dress just like Kate Winslet, ok? I have your dress all picked out! I'm wearing white. Don't laugh, Birdie. And we picked your birthday because then you would never forget my anniversary and also because we kind of" - and here Shanna took a deep breath, a rising flare of oxygen - "needed to make it quick."
Oh. My. God.
"Oh, Shanna, why didn't you tell me!!" I waited to hear whether she sounded wistful or trapped or forlorn, but she laughed again, hearty and rosy and full, well pregnant, with life.
I hung up the phone, hoped for a change of date, sat down here at my computer to consider the way life blows soap bubbles through my days, and how they rise to meet the sun, reflective, so beautiful, fragile, so damn temporary. And then I pictured Shanna as she helped me tile my bathroom, the way she took special care to make sure every tile was perfectly square, content in its space, her hands pressing, pressing, molding, pressing, creating a space colorful and sturdy all at once. I remember how she taught me how to clean the tools, how to keep the tile cutter sharp and ready. Oh Shanna, I thought, you are already a great mother to your projects, a great friend. You'll do just fine.
As for me, my life will go on.
8:54:53 PM 
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