Now and then

15 years quickly melted away within the first 15 seconds after I saw her smile.

When I left that morning I still could not really believe I was going to see Fred. We had these nick-names for each other. I was George and she was Fred. Neither one of us could quite remember where they had come from, but that is all we called each other. I even dug out an old yearbook, and found that is how she signed it back then. We even had matching leather hair clips that we had had embossed with "Fred" and "George" at the fair one summer. On my drive up I-57 I almost forgot where I was going, as this is the usual first leg of my trips to MI. After I got on Lincoln Hwy heading out to Indiana I could not get the smile off my face; just the thought of seeing Kassie and her mom Roxie again, left me grinning ear to ear.

I was a little nervous when I pulled in the drive. I did not know what to expect. There was not really any doubt that there would be hugs and smiles, and a general sense of I can't believe that we were really in each others presence again. My apprehension came from what would be beyond those first few minutes and hours. What would we talk about? Would we be comfortable telling all the juicy little gems of our lives that had transpired over the past 15 years? That is a lot of living to catch up on, and how would it go?

Shortly after we exchanged "hellos" and "I can't believe its," we after headed out to Roxie's country store, Dunfee Plumtickled Junction, for lunch. After looking around a bit downstairs and meeting Roxie's husband Dave, we took the old wooden staircase upstairs. I could hear her cute, little voice before I could see her. My grin grew. As we rounded the corner and I saw her, I just couldn't believe it - she looked not even 15 minutes older! We hugged and the smell of her perfume brought back even more memories.

After lunch, Kassie and I sat at the table in Pickle's and started to embark on 15 years of catch-up that lasted until the wee hours of the morning drinking wine and sitting on her couch in our PJ's. It all came with such ease, as if we had not seen each other in only a few months. She told me about life after she moved to Texas for just under a year and then to Indiana. All her stories about rodeo life in high school and I saw the pictures of when she was Indiana high school rodeo princess. I told her about college and my car accident. My trips and travels and caught her up on how the rest of the family is doing. We both filled each other in on the boys and men we have dated, and the good, bad, and crazy that went along with all those relationships. I got the story of how her and Jeff met and married. There was and still is so much to tell each other, but I think we made good headway.

In the morning we had our signature pancakes. When we would sleep over each others house, which was probably 2-3 times a week, we would make thin, not quite done pancakes, smother them in butter, and roll them up to eat them. We had one like this for ol' time sake. As the afternoon wore on it was time to say good-bye. We went down to say good-bye to Roxie, Dave, and grandma. We made plans to see each again soon, much much sooner then 15 years. After I get moved to Ann Arbor they would like to come up so they can see the rest of the family as well.

As I was driving home in the pouring rain I just could not believe how blessed I was to have this reunion with them. Her husband and little girl Holly, were just so welcoming. Holly repeated several times, "come back to Holly's house," as I was leaving. It is the true test of sincerity and depth of one's friendship when now it feels just like it was then.