She asked where are my childhood friends?

Where are my childhood friends? She asked, “Do you have any friends from childhood still in your life?”

No, none are still in my adult life, although one friend gave me her contact, to keep in touch.

I last met a childhood friend, EE, from middle school, when I was an older adult, in a Church situated in my old (childhood’s) neighborhood. It was a fluke and coincidence she bumped into me. I seldom ever attended Mass service in that church as I had moved farther away. That was many, many years ago. She still recognized me, although I didn’t really recognize her. She called me by name. She was a good person who went to university, graduated and worked in a stable environment.

EE asked me for a piece of paper. She wrote down her workplace telephone number. She didn’t say anything, but the obvious implication was to keep in touch. She was interested to reconnect as adults. She told how other classmates, like LL, stayed in touch, as they lived in the same neighborhood. She gave me a quick, general update on what LL did since graduation from university.

Back then, as a child, she restrained herself from talking too much, as she had to take care of herself and her family’s needs. She didn’t want to get involved with other people because of the effort, time and resources. She couldn’t even use the home telephone because her mother said not to waste money on telephone bills.

When we were classmates in elementary school, she invited me to her house. I was young and inexperienced in traveling alone so my Grandma took me there. She actually lived in her grandmother’s house, where her family of parents, two sisters and herself were staying. It was a landed property. Back in the day when it was affordable, her grandma could manage to have that house.

My friend EE showed me how she made cookies on a home-made oven, out in the backyard. While we kids were busy with baking, the two grandmas chatted. They discovered we shared relatives descended from a common ancestor one or two generations back. From them, their descendants had their two young girls, SS and CC, who were also in the same class as I was. You know how people talk about how there is only six degrees of separation between you and your doppelganger? I don’t know how to phase this, but I think for me, there was like only one or two degrees of separation from me and my distant cousins. I was surprised to discover I had distant cousins in the same class.

The next day in class, EE had already told Cousin SS and Cousin CC about me. Both cousins invited me to their homes. (new para) I was a shy girl. I didn’t pursue that avenue. My two cousins S and C later got streamed into different classes and we lost contact. I transferred into another school that was closer to my home. I never saw EE, SS or CC again.

I don’t feel comfortable talking to EE again, because I think “let the sleeping dogs of the past lie still”.

For illustration purpose only – Rotary dial telephone. Back in the day when this phone was in use, fiction writers used to write about how those spring cords could be used to strangle victims. (*Shivers*)

Related:

This essay is written from prompt #21, “Do you have any friends from childhood still in your life?“
, provided by JustRojie here.