The Final Goodbye

My friend Birdie and I were about to do something neither of us expected. We were not only the best of friends, we are each other’s forever family or at least that’s what we thought. My friend Birniecia Jane Chambers aka Birdie is the most kindest, loving and all around wonderful person I have ever met. I am Cat, legal name Catrina Beth Jamison. The thing that made our friendship special was the fact that we both wore glasses, we are both certified nerds and we had the same first letters in our names, C, B, and J, and we both are alone except for each other. We are all we have. Just us. Hey Cat remember when you and I tried out for the Langston High Cheerleading squad and you had such a bad case of the jitters and nerves that you ran head first straight into the boys locker room? Wait a minute missy, I was suffering from a serious case of chronic diarrhea due to my meds thank you, I said. Either way running dead into the arms of Buckie Gordon made up for the trauma. Both of us sighed at that memory. Hunky, tall and fine football, basketball , baseball, you name the sport he played it Buckie Gordon. A six pack to die for, a body men pray for and the looks of a God! Woo whoo Birdie moaned. That boy was the stuff of dreams! Yes I admitted he was something to see and for three entire seconds of my life something to touch as I ran head first into that chest of steel. We both burst out laughing, me with a hoot and a snort and Birdie with a cough. We have had some amazing memories. Ooh remember prom, I asked? Birdie girl that gown you had on child it was to die for!! Yes and the fact that Miss Willie Mae Jones died in it weeks before her sister Annabelle gave it to me since my mom was too drunk to remember I needed one really made it to die for Birdie said, coughing once more. and then finally falling asleep. I thought for a minute about Birdie and me. So alike and so different. We lived in the same trailer park, surrounded by drugs, poverty and hopelessness. We both had the bad luck to be only children to single moms. And we both had moms with addictions. We had the same circumstances but one of us suffered a little more or so I thought. See my friend Birdie is a blue eyed blonde with skin as white as snow. I am a brown-eyed Black girl. During our one and only fight I called her Snow White. We fought like the worst of enemies . Even after weighing twenty pounds more than Birdie, that didn’t stop that skinny little white girl from beating the crap out of me and I mean that truthfully because even then chronic diarrhea was my constant companion and made an unwelcomed appearance. Holding my face in the sand with not two mind you but one hand, she made me promise to never in this life or the next to ever call her that. Birdie beat me silly that day but true to her sweet loving character, bless her little heart and I mean that in the kindest of ways mind you, because the whole cleaning sand out of my face was crucial. She always came to my defense when I was called words other than my name or whenever I was treated unfairly. We have been through a lot my bestie, my friend, my sister of the heart and I. Many nights while our moms where unavailable we had to be there for each other. When one of us went hungry , the other one shared what little they had. We both dreamed to going into the medical field and we both lost our mothers to drug abuse. When our moms died within months of each other, we were able to stay in touch. I got to live with my grandmother and Birdie was adopted by a wealthy couple. They loved Birdie and when Birdie introduced me to them they loved me too. We both graduated high school and will wonders never cease, I graduated with honors . Soon after, Birdie’s wonderful adoptive parents died in a car accident at the hands of a drunk driver. Birdie was devastated. She seemed to wither right before my eyes. She had always been small but months after her parents tragedy she lost more and more weight. I was very concerned. So when she begged me to move in I jumped at the chance to take care of my friend. I cooked incredible healthy meals and instead of Birdie her name should have been changed to piggy because she sure ate like one. But she never gained weight. We both agreed she had to see a doctor soon. In just two months we would be heading off to a very prestigious university. Our excitement caused us to do a really bad interpretation of the moonwalk and the many toasts we made caused us to have the worst hangovers known to womankind. I woke up five days ago from that joyous celebration to check on my wonderful friend only to find her so far out of it that I panicked and called 911. The paramedics rushed her to the hospital and from there things went downhill quickly. Birdie was resting now. I decided to take a little nap also. Around midnight Bertie’s cough awoken me. I yelled out to the nurse and held Birdies hand. She looked at me and said I love you Cat and I said I love you too silly goose. Cat she whispered, I want you to know you have been more than a friend to me, you have been my reason to live, please remember this as my last goodbye. No I screamed no, where is that nurse , hold on Birdie hold on. Birdie died at 12:05. I never got to say a final goodbye . The Doctor said Birdie died from a very aggressive form of Cancer. Birdie’s parents left her quite a bit of money, and Birdie left it all to me. I thought I suffered more because of the color of my skin that was so different from my friend. I was wrong because my incredible friend Bertie had suffered more and she was stronger than I ever knew. She had known about her Cancer but instead of worrying about the inevitable she chose to focus on her Final Goodbye.