The Second Coming...is well, coming...

[chicating]

“Yeah, my mother said it was, you know, a sign from God or something…I just thought it was her strange sense of humor.” Alex replied.

“ I know your mother never really liked me, but since that’s what happened, it’s not all that funny.” For about the millionth time in my life, I wished stretching to my full height was something I could get mileage from. “Is it really so hard to believe, no, you know, I was trying to be like ‘I never!”, but I really am about the last person this should happen to…” We shared a laugh.

“She did….she’s just slow to warm up.”

“We went out for two years. And most of the time we had Sunday dinner…I don’t think things would get much warmer.”

“Well, she said that she hoped you’d get what’s coming to you.” Alex said diplomatically.

“Yeah, good wishes to her too. How’s Tawny?” I congratulated myself for not calling her Mini-Me like I would with my friends.

“In Portland. Her Dad had an operation.”

“Ok, and I hope I’m the last person to dump on, like, moral support and all that…but what good is she, or indeed, any of us, at a time like that?”
“Since the procedure she can hop.” I was SO NOT asking about that. Even if in our little crowd it kind of made her Simone Biles or someone.
“Wow, sounds like you’ve been really…blessed. “ Still felt weird to say, but if I was going to lay claim to it I had now or never, right?”
“You’d think so, but I thought she’d hop back by now. “ He sighed and it felt hard not to jump in and fill the breach. Imagine us as a wheelchair conga line with somebody having the baby in a sling.Our phone calls were the best we ever were. In my heart, I said good bye to him in the way his sudden transfer to the District hadn’t left room for me to. I wasn’t even glad about the cracks between him and Tawny.
“Maybe she just needs space. In a different way than I did.