-Preface-
It was May of 2007. Knowing that our lives were drastically changing and dealing with the conflicting emotions of excitement and loss, I felt pressed to write. In a spare moment one evening, I wrote this short story. It was the state of my heart and mind then, and it continues to be such.
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She lay awake knowing that it was the last night all of them would be sleeping in the same suite. Tears almost came, but she was not that sad. It was more of a slight ache. “Growing pains” her foot; it was not just that. She was never going to be in the same place again with her friends like this. Sighing and turning over once more did nothing to stop the ache or help her get to sleep any faster.
She wondered to herself how they ever got to be as close as they had become. Yet she did not stop there, she then wondered how far apart their lives would take them and how intimate they would be in the years following. Confessing that she was nowhere near omnipotent, she gave it up and went on to other thoughts.
In the end, she decided to focus on the moments they had shared together, the good times. Those brought her to a swift, happy sleep.
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Days and even weeks passed, and all four of them went their separate ways, intent on strikingly different summers and futures. They were so very different but somehow they shared so much, even down to the tone of laughter from time to time.
Abigail went back home to work at the pool and take a summer course at the nearby community college. Stephanie went home for a short time and promptly left the country to be a missionary for six months halfway around the world. Charlotte and Kara stayed put in town and moved into their new house. Charlotte started her internship, her job and got engaged in rapid succession. Kara settled into their new abode and waited for her summer classes to start.
As for their futures, Charlotte would marry John (the ring made that official), and Stephanie would surely marry Chad. Charlotte intended to write for a magazine of some sort and hopefully someday get her own book published. Stephanie planned on teaching ESL and ministering in some capacity either in the States or overseas. Abigail wanted to teach abroad for a bit and then return to teach math in the States. Kara did not have the foggiest idea as to her future; teaching, writing, traveling, she remained open to it all.
All four of them were entering into adulthood, independence and the dreams that they had first imagined as small girls. Their whole lives were ahead of them, or at least that is what they had been told by those who evidently had their lives behind them or were somewhere in the middle.
So their lives thus far served as a type of introduction in the story that continued only in the future. Being only as far as the introduction is both a scary and hopeful place to be. One is unsure as to the contents of the pages that follow, yet crosses one’s fingers for the best, since the title, table of contents and preface seemed to lean towards the bright side of things.
Yet past this introduction, what good would it do to share the intricate details of their lives? With their intentions being as they are, they remain utterly aware that their lives will unfold differently than they expect. Since, after all, life is already much different than what they had first thought. God is in control, and to them nothing else is of much consequence. Life is to be lived and cherished. If one particular circumstance is so extraordinary that it must be retold, then it is perhaps shared with the world through the art of writing.
Maybe that will come later, but for now we revel in the introduction. We turn to the next page and make a firm crease so it stays down, and then we do as the characters of the story are doing: we live.
