I was having the worst day at school.  Things just weren’t going my way.  I failed a test in Anatomy, got into a fight with a close friend, and was depressed because of all things my best friend in the entire world had no idea where I would be going to college-where I would be living in six months.  These times were the hardest to be away from her when I was upset because SHE was the one I wanted to call, the one I wanted to run to for advice, the one who knew all the answers.  Instead I turned to my boyfriend…bless his heart he tried as hard as he could.  Brian put up with my sudden emotional eruptions and tried to comfort me.  But this day he was not sympathetic.  He told me to get over it and move on.  He said that no good could come out of missing her and that unless I got on with my life I would never recover.  I got done dealing with him, went home, and logged onto the Internet and checked my mail.  When I opened my inbox and saw “blondeno17” as the return address, it actually didn’t register at first.  I was like OH God more junk mail, but something stopped me.  The subject was “2Carri.” That was how she always started her letters.  I immediately began flipping out.  I was on an emotional high. I had completely spanned the emotional spectrum in 10 seconds and I hadn’t even opened the message yet.
 

Hey girl,
Wsup?  The name of the song is “When you say nothing at all.”  Allison Krause sings it with some old dead guy.  So that movie was good huh?  I haven’t seen a movie in sooooo long; they don’t let us watch them here.  Well I gotta run.  Thanks for keeping this address current; I won’t be able to check it again for a while.  I love you
~Jezi
 
It was just like a normal letter-like I had talked to her 3 days ago instead of almost 10 months.  In fact it was 10 months to the day since she left.  No mention of where she was, no address so I could “snail mail” her, but just the fact that I knew she was okay and still alive and still “my Jessica” was enough to send me on an emotional high.  I printed out the email and carried it with me constantly.  I would run up to people and show them my prized possession. I walked around on clouds for days.  This was the only piece of contact I had with her. It meant everything to me.  I called Steven and he knew.  He knew before I said anything.  He answered the phone “You got a letter.”  I don’t know what it is, but Steven and I seemed to share the same connection that Jessica and I had.  We know things about each other that no one else knows; we feel things without speaking to the other person.  He had no clue how she was doing or where she was.  I was the one who got the message.  It was hard being the one she got in contact with.  He was her soul mate yet she chose me!  After a few exciting days, I got around to emailing her back.  I must have filled up 5 pages, catching her up on what was going on in my life.  Telling her which college I was going to, how my job was going, what my man of the moment was like.  I didn’t expect a response, but when it came a few weeks later, I was overjoyed.  Seeing her email address would brighten my day.  I proudly showed my boyfriend (the doubter) the letter, proclaiming that he was wrong, that she still loved me, that I was still her best friend.

*    *    *

Hey girl,
Wsup?  I’m home for Easter break right now, but I’m leaving to go back to LA tomorrow. Your new man sounds awesome; I never liked Brian.  He was always such a jerk.  You are soooooo gonna have to send me a pic soon.  Where’s OSU?   What happened to UT?  Next year I’m coming back here to do MASTER’S COMMISION.  It’s like a discipleship program through my church.  And after that I’ll prolly go to San Jac. for school since my ‘rents spent all the college money on TC.  My church is going on a mission trip to DC the first week of June.  We’re like doing street ministry and stuff.  Do you think you could come down?  Oh I should be home for your birthday so I’ll call k?
Luvyou
~Jezi


*    *    *

Most people spend their birthday partying or at least visiting with family and friends.  I spent mine in my room waiting for the phone to ring.  That afternoon, when it finally did, I was ecstatic.
 
“Hello?!?!?!?!”
“Heyyyyyyyy”
*giggle* “Hey girl”


We both collapsed into a fit of laughter, which lasted for 10 minutes, just like it used to.  It had been 1 year 2 weeks and 3 days since I talked to my best friend, yet when we were catching up it seemed like old times.  Her voice was the same; her mannerisms were identical; we still finished each other’s sentences.  It was incredible.  We spent about 2 hours on the phone, catching up on the past 13 months.  We talked about her adventures in Louisiana, what the program was about, why she wasn’t able to contact me for so long.  It turns out that she was in a church program called Teen Challenge.  They believed that in order to break the “habits” of her old lifestyle, she couldn’t communicate with anyone from that time of her life.  It was hard, but I was finally able to learn how my best friend had spent the past 12 months of her life.  We talked about everything.  When she asked about Steven-that was the hardest.  How was I supposed to tell my best friend that the love of her life had theoretically moved on, that when she came back, there was no one waiting for her?  After a while her mother needed the phone, but I didn’t care.  I had my best friend back; this was what I had been anticipating for over a year.  The void that I had felt for so long was now full.  She was just a phone call away.  Having the security of my best friend once again being there for me sent me soaring.

*    *    *

Jessica and I seemed to share one soul.  We both moved into the Oaks of Clear Creek within weeks of each other when we were 11 years old.  Because of her late birthday she was a grade behind me, but that didn’t matter.  After a few awkward meetings set up by our parents, we became the best of friends.  We shared everything together, the scary first day of Junior High, crushes, first boyfriends (Trenton David Hoffmeister), our first PG-13 movie (Mission Impossible), bad-breakups, and the hours spent in the garage burning all the mementoes from the journeys.  When I told her I was moving 1500 miles away to “some godforsaken place in that damn Yankee State” called West Virginia, we shared tears.  When I came home crying after my first day at my new school, she was there.  We bad-mouthed former boyfriends together, talked about our future jobs and marriages.  We planned our lives so they would always intertwine.  When important things happened in my life (grades, boyfriends, parental issues) mirror images would occur in hers.  We were connected on a higher level.

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