Day 363 - Visiting

 VISITING

Prompt - Visiting : Write about visiting a family member or friend

"Well" she let a deep breath out, "that wasn't what I was expecting."

I grinned, looked back into her shining brown eyes.  "Me neither.  D'you think it was always going to happen and we just never knew?"

But it wasn't like that.  Had never been like that.  We were pals.  Confidantes.  Shoulders to cry on.  And distant, very distant, buddies.

We'd first met thirty one years ago.  She was a friend of my wee brother, she even went out with him for a bit, but it was only when he dumped her that we connected.  He hadn't even bothered to tell her, so it fell to me to serve up the bad news when she turned up at our door.  She cried, I asked her in, and we were able to agree he was a little shit.  I made her laugh.  But there was never anything more than that.  She was fifteen, I was eighteen, and never the twain shall meet. 

Over the next couple of years we bumped into each other a few times, had a chat, maybe went for a drink, and bitched about other people.  Each time we'd both be with someone else, so it felt very 'safe'.  Mates.  We started to meet up from time to time.  And when I broke up with Sandy it was Maddie I turned to for a sympathetic ear, knowing she wouldn't judge.  The same thing happened, for one or the other of us, a few times into our mid twenties.

Then I got married and Geri, my wife, couldn't grasp that me and Mads really were just the platonic friends we said we were, so, to keep the peace, I lost touch with my old sounding board, and got on with life.  A couple of years later I heard that she'd got married and moved to Canada, and that seemed to be that.  

Back then there was no social media of course.  Fast forward about sixteen years and this new digital world took a hand.  Through a mutual friend on Facebook we found one another in the comments, said hi from our respective sides of the Atlantic, caught up on what had been happening in our disparate lives.  It was nice to hear from her again, and the distance meant that  Geri felt unthreatened.

So when my marriage fell apart it had nothing to do with Maddie.  I messed that up perfectly well by myself.  It's not my thing to go over-sharing in public, but again Mads heard about my situation from someone else on Facebook.  Her messages were sympathetic, to the point, just what I needed.  The old Mads, like she'd never been away.  We took to having online chats from time to time, and it felt good to have her back in my life, even if only virtually.

But it still came as a shock when I realised it was her video calling.  She had news she needed to share and, even though she had plenty friends in Toronto, I was the one she felt she needed to share with.  Doug, her husband, had died suddenly.  She cried, and there was that fifteen year old girl on my doorstep again.  We talked until after one in the morning my time, before she suddenly realised how late it must be.  As if I cared.

The chats became a regular thing, every couple of days.  There were daily message exchanges.  Apart from the need to cram it all into a brief time window, it was almost like having her back.  Just the shoulders missing.

Six weeks ago she told me she had a surprise, but it would have to stay that way for now, and she might not be in touch as much for a bit.  Which she wasn't.  I thought we didn't have secrets, so this was really irritating me, but I had to try and trust her.  Which was definitely the right thing to do.

One day I get a message asking if I'll be available to talk at eight that evening, she had something big to tell me.  Sure, why not, it wasn't like I had much else in my life.  The appointed hour came, I sat with my laptop, awaiting the call, and her face on the screen.  Hearing the doorbell was annoying, I didn't need the interruption to what sounded like it could be an important moment.  But the person outside wasn't taking the hint, and rang and rang again, and banged and banged.  And shouted through the letterbox.  That voice...

I leapt up and there she was.  On my doorstep again, like she was thirty one years before, but this time there was no bad news.  I got out my whats and whys and hows and she shut me up, gave me a hug and invited herself in, bottle in hand.  

It was a long night.  So much to say, so much to take in.  She'd moved back, home at last, found a place for now that was about a twenty minute walk from mine.  We cycled through the emotions, laughed, cried, held one another, laughed some more.  Held some more.  Neither showing any sign of letting go.  So we didn't, but got closer, closer than we'd ever been, and were soon tearing clothes off and making love like it was ordained.  

"Always?  Don't think so.  Or maybe.  I don't know.  I'm glad we did though.  Eventually."

"A lot better than your first visit to my doorstep, eh?"