The two 13-year-old girls were early for their first day of 9th grade. Classes weren't due to begin till 10:00 that morning, but both of the girls had come from private schools and they were accustomed to not only being on time, but getting everywhere way ahead of time. Just in case. They never really understood what 'just in case' meant, but eight-year-habits are hard to break, and they were both standing in front of the high school before 9:30 in the morning.
One girl had just completed eight years in a Catholic grammar school; the other had completed her elementary education in a Greek Orthodox school. Both of them had dark hair, dark eyes, and brand new first-day-of-school clothes that looked good enough, but their outfits wouldn't ever have been advertised in "Seventeen" magazine.
This particular high school building was made of brick and stone.... set up on a hill overlooking a park with a large pond that froze in the winter-time. The cool kids would go ice-skating as soon as the pond froze over.... cute little skirts and sweater-sets on the girls, and of course brand new skates. The not-so-cool (not-so-rich) kids would watch from a distance, all the while pretending they didn't care that their parents couldn't afford the ice skates and the outfits with the matching scarves and pom-poms on the sweaters.
The two girls stared up at the high school building.... there was a clock in the middle of the center tower.... more than half an hour to wait till the bell rang for their first period. What would they do to not appear nervous and out-of-place in front of that huge building that they'd been inside of just one time? On orientation day, they weren't given enough time to learn the lay-out of the three floors.... they would have to look in the school handbook and try to map out their classes so as not to waste time and not be late in arriving at each class.
The girls smiled at one another at the same time.... and each began walking in the other's direction. Somehow, they both understood that they were 'new girls,' that they wouldn't really fit in with the public-school-savvy teenagers that would be filling up the steps and the lawn in front of this school before the ten o'clock bell rang.
"Are you new here?" "I graduated from the Catholic school down the hill." "Are you a freshman too?" "We just moved here from The City... I graduated from the Greek school connected to my Church."
And so began a friendship....... the girls had some classes together, but not homerooms..... they would meet in the mornings down the hill and then walk up to the high school together. They exchanged phone numbers and would spend most of every evening talking to one another, telling each other everything that they didn't get a chance to say during the school day, even though they met after school and walked back down the hill together. There was just always so much to say. When the first snows fell, they watched the ice-skaters for a little while, then walked down the hill towards their homes. "Have you ever been on skates?" "No." "Me neither." "Who cares!"
In their freshman year of high school, their friendship grew into a trust that allowed other girlfriends in, but kept the two girls united in their best-friends friendship. The girls became the mainstay of their larger group of friends. What they didn't get to talk about during school was discussed at night on the telephone..... one sitting in a quiet corner of a hallway in her house, the other pulling the long cord of the phone into the pantry... they talked incessantly about everything.
In sophomore year, after spending nearly every day of the summer together, their friendship grew even closer. They saw one another every day, sometimes walking along the Avenue and window-shopping, holding a small transistor radio tuned to WNBC and Cousin Brucie. They would meet for lunch (always the local pizza place) or for shopping (searching for bargains on 45s and LPs and clothes for school that looked more expensive than they were). The girls would get together for trips to the Library (mysteries, the latest best-sellers, biographies, classics from the English class reading list). As always, what they didn't have time to discuss during the day was saved for the night-time phone calls.
In their junior year, their friendship matured a bit. Instead of discussing The Beatles or the clothes that were on sale at Lerner's, they discussed family matters... small hurts and big disappointments.... tiny scars and life-altering changes in their family dynamics. Nothing was left unsaid...... everything was discussed with love and respect, judgments never entered the conversations. They were best-best friends, and nothing would ever change that. Sisters under the skin, for always.
In senior year, they both found part-time jobs after school.... one worked at a retail store, and the other in a local lawyer's office. They had the same hours at school, and some of the same classes, but their work hours were different. As always, whatever they didn't get a chance to discuss during the day was saved for the night-time phone calls.... the hallway and the pantry became their safe zones, or as safe as they could be from siblings and parents.
Senior Prom came up on the school calendar..... the cost for the dinner, the dance, plus getting a really nice gown and shoes and having special hair-dos....... all of that just wasn't in their budgets. And did they want to go to that Prom anyway? All those fraternity and sorority students..... even after four years in that school, did they really fit in with most of those kids? Not really.
The girls came up with a plan to celebrate with a small group of their friends...... they'd go into The City on Prom Night.... they'd be dressed up nicely, but not all dressed up in gowns.... they arranged a dinner at a family-owned Greek restaurant.... they would have a special Prom Night of their own. And so they did.... Greek food, Greek dancing.... it was a memorable night and they talked about it for days afterwards.... long telephone cords stretching into the hallway, into the pantry.
Graduation day came...... and it rained and rained. The huge outdoor ceremony had to be held in the auditorium of the high school. The senior class was so big that they had to split it into two ceremonies..... they divided the alphabet down the middle, the A's thru L's in the morning, the M's thru Z's in the afternoon. The two girls weren't in the same part of the alphabet so one graduated in the morning, the other in the afternoon. "At least we had Prom night together," they said.
After graduation, they both had jobs for the summer...... different locations, different hours... but there was still the telephone. When September came along, one girl went to college, the other went to work. College studies took up most of one girl's time, after-work responsibilities took up most of the other girl's time. The phone calls were still there, but they weren't as long. There was still so much so say, but just not enough time.
In their twenties, their lives got busier..... family responsibilities, college classes, 9 to 5 jobs. One of the girls got married and moved out of state. Long-distance calls were so expensive then, so they wrote letters. Weekly letters turned to monthly letters... which turned into every-other-month letters..... but still, they were Sisters Under The Skin, weren't they?
In their thirties, the girl who stayed in their home state moved out of the old neighborhood.... a new job, more family responsibilities..... less time for letter-writing. By the time the other girl moved back to their home state, the one who had stayed there was now married and she had moved to another state. The two girls weren't in the same zip code, and they weren't even in the same time zone. They lost touch.....and they lost one another for almost three decades. They both tried to find the other from time to time..... the friends they both knew in high school had also lost contact with the two girls, and the whereabouts of each one remained a mystery.
In their 40s, their high school had a 25th Reunion..... both girls were living out of state at the time, and neither one of them went back to the high school for the party and celebration. The ones who did go to the reunion didn't know how to find either of the girls when they were asked. Everyone was busy, everyone had jobs, kids, responsibilities.
Their 50s went by in a blur, sort of like their 40s, only the time seemed to pass more quickly. Jobs, husbands, families..... everything took up so much of their time, but they still talked about each other to anyone who would listen. "My best friend in high school...... we talked on the phone for hours.... we were like sisters.... we could tell each other everything..... we were closer than family...."
Internet searches began...... first names, last names...... previous addresses...... neither of them were on Facebook, which would have helped...... but.... more searches..... and....... one girl's daughter was on that site..... and as the other girl looked at the photo of that daughter, right there on the computer screen was the face of her mother as she looked during high school years. Could that really be her daughter?
An address was found....... a letter was mailed from Texas to Maryland........ "Are you 'my V....?' If so, please contact me......"
The telephone rang within days....... as soon as that first "Hello" went over the phone lines, there was no mistaking those voices.... they were the same sisters-under-the-skin voices that burned up the phone lines in Queens so many many years ago. They talked, they laughed, they caught up with one another's lives since the last time they'd seen each other. The girls exchanged eMail addresses and promised to keep in touch now that they'd found one another again.
Within six months of that 'first' phone call, the girls made plans to visit....... one flew from her state to the other's state...... they hugged at the door, introduced their husbands, and then hugged again. And they hugged at the start of every morning and at the end of every evening... they were indeed still Sisters Under The Skin. "You look the same!" "You look just the same too!" "I would have recognized you anywhere!"
They talked about other friends who had moved away and passed away.... of parents and siblings no longer in their lives........ they talked, and talked, and talked, as if no time had passed at all. And when the one girl's daughter came into the house to hug her mother's best friend, time seemed to stand still because it was like hugging the high school girl of so many years ago. How could you not love the daughter of your best friend as if she were your own as well?
Their lives are still busy...... homes and families, jobs and responsibilities...... there's always something. But they take the time to keep in touch..... more eMails than phone calls, because they're not in the same time zone and their schedules are so very different. They're both in their early 60s now, and they realize that the one thing you can never get back is time...... and time in your 60s seems so much more precious than time in your 20s and 30s.
They have discussed the magic and the closeness of their friendship...... they've come to the conclusion that it was so easy to pick up right where they left off because of their history together. Each of them knows everything about the other.... every blessed thing..... nothing was ever left unsaid all those years ago, and the same holds true for now. When you can tell a person anything and everything, and not be worried about being judged, then you have a true and meaningful friendship that can stand the test of time.
Sisters under the skin... for all the time back then, for all the time we have now.
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