Writing prompt #1: What person in your life knows you the best, and how did you meet?
Years ago, this would have been an easy question to answer: it was my kids. When they were little, I was the parent who mainly cared for them and we spent a lot of time together. I always tried to be honest and up front with them, and they knew me better than anyone, including their mother. As the years have gone by, though, we’ve drifted apart. I suppose that’s normal, but it bothers me. If I’m being honest, it breaks my heart every day. The fact of the matter is that they just live too far away for us to have a really close relationship. They’re all adults now, of course. Ben and James live in Sacramento, and William was living in New York until he decided to move overseas to London.
The reality is that I don’t have anyone in my life right now
who knows me terribly well. I’m getting along better with my parents now than I
have in years, but I don’t think they really know me that well. We don’t have a
whole lot of deep conversations and we don’t have many shared interests,
either. At one point, a couple of years ago, I would have said Rose Marie knew
me best, but we haven’t been able to talk much for over a year and a half now.
I don’t even have her phone number anymore. Until just recently, I was hoping
this would just be a phase we’re going through, I’ve finally had to accept that
it’s not going to change, so I stopped going to church (which was the only
place I could even say hi to her at all) and I’m just going to stay away from
her. I’m going to try to stay out of Perris altogether. It’s best for everyone
involved, but it means I don’t have a best friend anymore and I don’t have
anyone who knows me very well.
Obviously, I met my kids when they were born. I was in the
operating room when all three of them were born, so I have literally known them
their entire lives. Rose Marie was someone I met by accident at a Memorial Day
barbeque. She came up to me while I was standing in line to get a hot dog and a
hamburger and she asked me to watch the two little dogs she had on leashes
while she used the bathroom. While she was gone, one of the dogs (the little
troublemaker) turned around and yanked his head out of his collar and went running
around the property. I had to leave the other dog with a friend of mine and go
chase him down; I finally caught him after he was too exhausted to sprint
anymore and I was able to return him to her, after which we started chatting
and struck up a friendship that lasted almost ten years. She’s had two kids
since then and I know both of them very well; whenever they see me, they want
to tell me stuff and show me stuff and play, and they like to walk around with
me and explore places while I watch to make sure they don’t get hurt. That ended
a while back, though, and I don’t talk to any of them anymore.