by Christa Abernathy

Created on: January 06, 2007   Last Updated: May 14, 2007

New Year's day has just passed and the world has completed one more journey around the sun. As I turn the page in my memory book, I remember the life I once had. When life was innocent and bad things were eons away, there was this curly haired little girl with freckles on her cheeks and the capacity for great love. She was lonely though and had very few people to talk to. The summer approached slowly as she moved toward the end. The end of her life as she knew and the beginning of a life unknown.

When I was younger, we moved a lot. It seemed sometimes that I'd barely gotten to know anyone before we moved again. But that's the life of a preacher's daughter. Growing up though, I had two wonderful friends who helped me transition through.

The first best friend I ever had was a beautiful girl with dark skin and long brown hair. Her eyes danced when she spoke and she loved "The New Kids On The Block" as much as I loved "The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". We could take any boy on the play ground and we loved to dress in high heels and lipstick. She was the last person I saw when I left Ohio as a child. Our final day together was cut short when my parents found out that we had to move a day earlier than planned. I remember the entire drive home from her house, we cried and held each other as we said our long good-byes.

To this day, I don't know why but I stared at her mother's neck for the entire drive home, as though memorizing the moles and lines and freckles would be my salvation. I can't tell you what her name was, or what her smile was like, but I can tell you that the car smelled like her perfume and that her gold necklace had left a fine tan line at the nape. And her daughter was my lifeline that day.

I cried the whole way from Ohio to Illinois. I don't think my parents even realized that 7 year-olds could be depressed. But I was.

It took me awhile to adjust to my new life. Friendships were now transient. I holed myself away with books and adventures in my playroom. I drove my sister insane.

Summer faded away. A new school year opened up a new world for me. One little girl sat in the middle of the classroom with eyes as blue as the ocean. She hated me.

I'm not sure how, but within a few days I somehow "stole" her best friend and several other friends as well.

The hatred didn't last. We soon discovered more similarities than differences. Within a year we'd pledged eternal friendship. We taught each other how to rollarblade, how to swim (shoving one another into the deep end of a pool counts as "teaching" right?), how to flirt with the boys, and how to drive our siblings crazy. We shared lipstick, clothes, toys, and boyfriends.

Time's grown older and we've parted ways. Last I heard, the one is a model and the other is married with children. I'm a single mother now and wondering what kind of friends my daughter will meet along life's mysterious journey. No doubt, she'll find her own wide-eyed freckle-faced kid to show her new things and teach her how to be strong.

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