Time's Broken Wings

It’s common knowledge that “time flies when you’re having fun,” and the fact that time is slow when you are doing something boring. But what happens when your day is filled with both? Perhaps more? Is it how normal days are actually supposed to feel? Days are longer in the summer and shorter in the winter, but what about in the fall? Who knows. 

Frieda got up very early that morning, despite the fact she had intermittent, restless sleep. It was still dark when she slipped out of her deep, plush mattress and stretched her arms and legs out by the window. Frieda’s window was tall and wide, made of thin glass and a spindly metal frame separating it into panels. It led onto a spacious balcony, where she clumsily walked out to watch the early morning sky.

 It was foggy in the streets below, and she could feel the moisture in the air. The sky was a stony blue, like in between the deep, oceanic midnight and the pale, cloudy morning. It was beautiful in Frieda’s bright brown eyes. She was alert and awake already, and decided she would go and get dressed. 

Frieda was fashionable; she liked to dress a different way every day, and that morning she was inspired by the winter, even though it was not currently winter. She donned a minty blue t-shirt and white jeans, and topped it all off with a messy bun on the crown of her head. She put in new earrings, little opal garnets she got as a Christmas present. 

Frieda was about to put the kettle on to make coffee, but she decided she’d rather go outside. 

She walked down the street and around the corner, to a cute little coffee shop that was conveniently close to her house. She opened the door and went inside, and the door closed with a pleasant bell ring. 

There was only one other person there, a woman she had seen around town a few times, she believed her name was Erin. She lived a few streets from her, as far as she could tell. She went up to the counter and examined the menu. The girl behind the counter looked at her impatiently a few times, but Frieda paid no attention. Her eyes were glued to the chalkboard on which the drink of the week, “Peppermint Latte," was written. She knew what she wanted. “Can I have the peppermint latte please?” The girl behind the counter called out her order to another worker leaning on the counter beside her, and then returned to Frieda finishing it off with, “Anything else ma’am?” “Um, yes please, an Oreo cheesecake cake pop?” She cleared her throat slightly embarrassed that Erin was within earshot. The girl responded with the routine, “Okay that’ll be $7.65, ma’am.” Frieda scrambled up the contents of her pockets, a few gum wrappers and bobby pins, when she realized she forgot her wallet at home. She cursed under her breath. “I er- forgot my wallet at home, I’ll be right back.” She eyed Erin. “Uh- sorry to bother- but er- I need to run home real quick to get my wallet could you- look out for my order?” “No problem,” she said, standing up and walking over to the counter. “Thanks,” she said promptly, and rushed out of the store. 

Frieda felt the cold, wispy air nip her ears and cheeks as she lightly jogged the distance back to her house. She ran up the stairs and snatched the little pink pouch that was her wallet from her bedroom dresser, and fumbled back downstairs. 

Before she knew it, she was back in the coffee shop sipping a peppermint latte with Erin. Her cake pop was scrumptious, better than any other cake pop she’d had! She had a good laugh with Erin after she gave her the wrong order and Frieda sipped some of it, but Frieda had no shame and they laughed it off. Frieda noticed that Erin had already finished her coffee, but she was still there. She wants to hang out with me!!!  She thought, alarmed that she thought it excitedly. She barely knew her, after all.  

Pretty soon they were outside watching the sunrise together. It was magical. Frieda felt a strange sense of comfort in her presence, like she was accepted and cared for.

“I’m not doing anything today. I never have plans,” Frieda laughed.

“Me neither,” Erin replied.

“Hey- wanna just- spend the day doing stuff?” Frieda said vaguely.

“Yeah sure,” she said with a laugh.

“Okay,” she laughed back. 

“What do you want to do first?” 

“ Um- I don’t know, there’s a nice park over there,” she pointed around the corner where there was a sliver of green between the buildings, “It’s got a great view of the sky we could watch the sunrise- better - from over there.” “Yeah, great!” she replied and went off with her to the park. 

I think we have all experienced that feeling where we feel sick with embarrassment for another person, perhaps when we’re watching a movie that has a painfully awkward scene; it makes you laugh, but a cringe laugh, and you wish the scene was over but it is funny at the same time. That was what Frieda and Erin’s walk to the park was like. 

“Uh-” Frieda said involuntarily. 

“What?”

“I do not know.”

Erin gave off a laugh, but she felt like she needed to stretch it out longer and resulted in a halfhearted, forced out laugh that died out after a while, which was classically embarrassing, and afterwards whenever Frieda looked at her, secretly expecting she would say something else, she tried to inconspicuously look at the ground to mask the fact she was looking at her, which only aggravated the awkward situation. 

After a nearly lethal five minutes of complete silence, Erin tried to enlighten the conversation by asking the rhetorical question, “Do you go to that- er- coffee shop a lot?” She clearly knew the answer to this because she only ever saw Frieda going to the liquor store to get groceries, and only spotted her in the coffee shop a few times before. “Not that often, really. You go there a lot, though.” Frieda winced, immediately regretting what she said and repeating, “oh god,” over and over again in her head. Erin laughed dryly and very quietly, then tried to amp it up and laughed in almost a shriek, very oddly much higher pitched than her normal voice. Frieda gave her a strange look, to which she straightened her face and replied, “Uh- yeah, I do- I guess- yeah- I er- like- uh-coffee.” It sounded almost interrogative the way she said that, because clearly, she wasn’t in the coffee shop for coffee. After all, it was along the way to Frieda’s route to the liquor store. 

“Yeah- uh- me too,” Frieda replied, and seemed to be the most normal thing they had said so far. She did enjoy coffee, but was too nervous to go to the coffee shop when Erin was always in there. 

“What kind of drink did you get?” she asked calmly. She was starting to get the hang of this. 

“I got a flat white. I love those.” She paused. “What kind of drink did you get?”

She raised an eyebrow and looked at her. “Didn’t you just pick up my order for me earlier?” 

Erin looked like she was just stabbed in the stomach with a dagger. “Oh yeah- the peppermint latte, right?” “Yeah,” she responded, trying to sound lighthearted or amused, but came off as arrogant and rude. Erin did remember which drink Frieda got, but instead of commenting on it, she asked about it again. Her mind was very preoccupied with staring at Frieda’s streaky, golden brown hair and beautiful, creamy skin that reminded her of the dollop of cream in the middle of a flat white; her elegant eyelashes free of makeup or fake lashes, just natural beauty. And her eyes. She got lost in them. And eventually literally got lost. 

“Erin!” Frieda exclaimed. Erin just realized she had walked into a lamppost. “Oh,” she said, short of breath, “Oops.” Frieda gave her a lighthearted pat on the shoulder, but a concerned glance. 

Soon they arrived at the park after a few more minutes of strangling silence, and sat on a bench between two trees that had a truly fantastic view of the breathtaking sunrise.  

Bright, neon pink and orange mingled at the very horizon and it looked like the distant mountains were engulfed in beautiful, brightly colored flames. Clouds were stretched out across the sky covering up gloomy grayish blue, and were lit up on the bottoms from the burning sun below. Their eyes were glued to the wonderful sky scene in front of them until the sun was high and bright, and it was about 9:00. They looked at each other, and then looked away, and then they both got up and started walking again. 

“What do you want to do now?” Erin asked. “It’s your turn, I picked the first thing.” They both laughed, genuinely this time. “Well- we could go to my house? I guess?” “Sure, that sounds like fun!” Erin smiled, and her green eyes twinkled. Frieda noticed they were a pretty shade of green, like a chartreuse. Then she looked back at Erin’s grinning face and said, “Okay, um- let’s go.” They started walking back down the street in silence. This time it wasn’t an awkward silence, it was just a natural silence. They would then hear the birds chirping and all the routine noises of the lightly busy street. They could hear everyone’s footsteps and their own, and it was a nice, almost enchanting rhythm. Soon they arrived at Frieda’s house and decided to play a board game. 

Throughout the day, they became more comfortable in each other’s presence, and they still had those silent moments, but they weren’t painful or forced anymore, they were natural and soothing. After Frieda’s they went to Erin’s, which was just as much fun. They baked cookies and ate them while watching their favorite sitcom, which they found out they had in common. They watched it for hours and then decided they wanted to do one more thing before the day ended. 

“I don’t know, should we go to the bakery or something?” Erin suggested.

“No, we already had cookies.”

“What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know, something close we could walk to, somewhere with a view.”

“OH!!!” she suddenly exclaimed. 

“What? What is it?”

“THE LAKE! I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THE LAKE!” 

“Is it far?” 

“No, not that far. It’s just like down the hill and a little ways away. They have benches and stuff and it has a great view.”

“Okay, let’s go!” 

Erin put on her jacket, but Frieda left without one. She figured it couldn’t be that cold. 

The walk down was pleasant. Silent, but beautiful. 

When they came around the bend, they found themselves in sand and could see a peaceful lake and benches a little ways away. They sat in the benches, and this time there was no divider between the seats. 

They could see an astonishing moon reflected off the lake, and it was bright and full. The scene was, quite honestly, very romantic. 

“I had fun today,” Frieda said gratefully. “Thanks for-”

“What?” Erin asked with a smile. 

“Everything.”

“The moon is beautiful.”

“So are you.” 

Erin blushed, but it was barely visible in the moonlight. 

Frieda scooted a little closer. 

“Thanks,” Erin said. “You look amazing.” 

Frieda blushed too, but tried to hide her satisfaction.

“Really?” 

“Really.” 

Frieda smiled. 

"Hey, aren't you cold?" Erin asked.

"Well- yeah, it is pretty chilly out here."

Erin sat up and removed her jacket, putting it around Frieda's shoulders.

"No, no, you don't have to do that, I'm fine, I said it was pretty chilly out here, I'm not that cold-"

She couldn't finish, because off-guard, Erin leaned in and kissed her.

It was long and slow, and Frieda wished it could last forever, and at first it seemed like it would, but moments don’t last forever. We have to preserve them. Remember how much they meant to us and make the most of them, because we’ll never get them back, and that’ s honestly hard to think about but it’s true. Time doesn’t change, it just feels different. If you’re having a great time, instead of thinking about how long it’ll feel, think about how great a time you’re having and make the most of it and cherish it. If you’re not, don’t think about how long it’ll last- but think about how great it’ll be when it’s past.