Just A Rift Between Friends

It was a glorious day, the temperature was perfect, and I was sitting outside at a little café enjoying an iced coffee and a muffin. Sitting beside me was my bff (aka sister) and we were planning our parents 50^th anniversary party. We already had the venue, the food, and the music and now we were working on the guest list. Of course, we had to invite the relatives, and my parent’s closest friends, but we also included co-workers and some of our friends too. My sister worked on her list, and I on mine and then we traded to make sure we didn’t exclude anyone. I checked hers over and declared it complete. She looked at mine in confusion. “What’s up?” I asked. She replied, “you forgot Vicky.” “You know that we haven’t talked in two years.” Had it been that long? I thought to myself. “Wow, I did not realize you guys still weren’t talking,” my sister said in shock.

We had met in high school and were inseparable. People used to tease us and say, “there go the Y sisters!” My name was Becky, and hers Vicky, so they thought they were being clever. We just laughed. After high school, we worked at the same places. Santa’s Village was fun, except when the bratty kids would throw darts at us instead of the balloons. The pickle factory was dangerous, especially when a gang of girls threatened to beat us up for talking to their boyfriends. We couldn’t help being adorable, haha. We had some naughty adventures at the motel we worked at, tasting our first whiskey and throwing up in sync.

She was at my wedding, and I was at hers. She was pacing the hall with my sister at the birth of my son. I was the one she called when she had to have surgery. The point is, we were close. We started working at the same retail store, I started about six months before her, and I bugged upper management until she was hired. We both moved up the ladder into management after a few years, and our schedules were opposite many times, but we always managed to squeeze in a few lunches to catch up.

We were both stubborn, and thought our way was the best way, but we had always been like that. For the life of me, I could not remember why we stopped talking. I asked my sister if she remembered. “All I know is that you were at work, some words were exchanged, and the next thing I knew you weren’t friends anymore.” It’s crazy that I couldn’t remember what exactly happened. My sister broke through my thoughts. “Why don’t you invite her to the party? Throw her an olive branch.” I looked at her in disbelief. “Why am I throwing the olive branch? What about when I was in the hospital for six days after my car accident? Where was my branch? I got nothing! Radio silence! I could have died! And do you think she cared? No! I’m over it!”

On the other side of town, Vicky was feeding her rescue kitten a bottle of kitty milk. She ran the rescue mission for lost and abandoned animals and this little guy came in last night. He was covered in fleas and dirt, and it took her three baths to get him clean. She loved her job, but she couldn't understand the utter cruelty of some people. I temporarily named him Puma because he looked sort of like a panther. He was happily purring on my lap when my husband came in. “I see you’ve had a rough day,” he laughed. “Do you want me to fix us a drink before dinner?” I said yes, put Puma in his blanket and followed him to the bar. We exchanged stories about our day, and then he said, “did you hear about David and Sarah’s 50^th anniversary party? Its this weekend. Are we going?” I felt like I was going to explode! “You know I loved them like they were my own parents, but I haven’t spoken to Becky in years.” “Honey, I know. I thought with the party coming up, maybe you guys would have made up. Why were you fighting in the first place?” he asked. Now I was getting angry, “I’m going upstairs to take a bath. Dinner is in the oven!”

While I ran my bath, I thought about that fight years ago. And I just couldn't remember what started it. I know we were working together, but that’s all I remember. I remember not talking to one another in the store, and all the employees noticing, considering we all worked closely as a team. I also remember being transferred to another store, which I guessed was Becky’s doing. And that made me angry enough to quit and find a different job. I loved my job, but sometimes when I had something really exciting to share, I did miss my old friend. But she could be unreasonable, and stuck in her ways. So, no, we were not going to the party, even if we had an invitation to it, which we didn’t. Frankly, I was over it. If she was going to be so petty, then that kind of friendship I did not need!

The next day I was thinking about it, and thought that even though Becky and I were not talking, fifty years is a long time to be married, so I thought I would bring them a gift. And if I saw her car in the driveway, I would save it for another day. I went to the department store and bought them a set of garden gnomes, which she used to love putting in her garden. I drove over, and seeing that Becky was not there, rang their doorbell. Sarah answered, and without saying a word came over and gave me the biggest bear hug I had ever had. She smiled, and said, “It’s good to see you kid. Don’t make it so long next time. Come in for some tea.” So, I crossed the threshold of my sworn enemy’s mom, and joined her for tea.