Rachel sighed, looking at the long to-do list in her planner, and wondered when she'd grown so very old. She closed it and, looking up, glimpsed a woman sitting in the crowded mall food court and was startled by her familiar face. The woman was beautiful with short black hair and slanted dark eyes, and at first, she thought she was an actress. Then Rachel noticed she was wearing scrubs and sitting with an older man. Surprised, Rachel realized the man was familiar too – he had a patch of grey hair at his temple that was striking in his dark hair.
Like a bolt of lightening, the streak of grey focused Rachel’s memory and she knew he was the woman’s father. Recognition spread thru her and she realized the woman was her childhood best friend. She pushed through the crowd toward the woman and nearly embraced her before she saw the woman didn't recognize her.
“Lindsay Richman,” she asked expectantly.
“It’s Lindsay Hunter now,” Lindsay replied, her eyes flitting to the oversized diamond on her hand.
“It’s Rachel. Rachel Brown.” Lindsay stared back at her, puzzled only for a moment, and then stuck out her hand. “Of course, it has been so long.”
Rachel returned the shake and Lindsay asked her to sit. Rachel and Lindsay spoke about their jobs and attempted to build a bridge across the last eighteen years. As Lindsay spoke, Rachel recalled the long-forgotten movements of Lindsay’s body, unchanged despite the time. As she'd had in her youth, Lindsay’s posture was confident and her hands moved with a causal grace. Rachel recalled memories of their shared girlhoods too and felt dizzy from all the images rushing into her mind at once. She remembered the forts they built out of the couch cushions in Lindsay’s basement so they could talk away from her brothers. They’d shared secrets and dreams there. Her secrets were small then but her dreams were so big. She remembered they’d watched the movie “The Sound of Music” and danced on her backyard playground singing, “I am sixteen going on seventeen” as they daydreamed together about growing up and falling in love. Rachel had been so heart-broken when her parents told her they were moving and she'd be parted from Lindsay. They'd written for awhile but lost touch entirely after a few years. The memories came to her as Lindsay spoke like waves on a still lake, and Rachel knew that ripples would remain.
Rachel was thinking about the club the girls' had formed (they'd called it ALARM), when Lindsay abruptly interrupted, saying that she had to return to her shift at the hospital. Rachel nodded, “It was really good to see you,” Lindsay said as she slung her bag over her shoulder.
“We’ll have to do it again sometime,” Rachel agreed and as Lindsay walked away, she realized that they hadn't exchanged contact information. But Rachel didn't call to her -- she was sure they couldn’t rekindle their long-lost childhood friendship. Rachel was grateful though for the glimpse into her memory that their chance meeting had given her.
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