prev 1985 next
2001-07-24 | 11:55 p.m.

Down in the basement, trying to find one of the birth announcements that I had made up when the girls were born (to send to Camille in France), I came across an old leather-bound book that I had written in when Brian and I were first together, in 1985. The morning I turned 21, very early, even before I work up, he left town to hitchhike around the country a bit. He wanted to find himself. I knew he was leaving---we had had a going-away party for him the night before---but it was still pretty traumatic. He didn't have an address I could write to, so I wrote to him in the book. The letters go from loving to angry and back again. I loved him about as much as I know how. But what stands out now are the little slips that reveal just how good my friends were to me. Most of my friends at the time were men and they really fussed over me. They're still my friends today. At one point, I mention rather obliquely that "one of my friends" had launched into an anti-Brian tirade. Now I can't help but wonder whether that was Stephen, Rory, Frank, or Skip. After all these years, it's nice to realize that it could have been any one of them. They were all looking out for me, and they were all on my side.

prev archive next
0 comments