The Phone Call
Last night when I answered the phone it was for Kiki. She came bounding up the stairs, snatched the phone from my hand, and dashed to her bedroom to chatter for nigh 30 minutes. This is typical behavior for a 12-year-old girl. At least I’ve heard that it is. It is not typical behavior for Kiki. Mostly when people call for her she is off the phone in less than two minutes. She has no interest in chatting for hours about boys or clothes or even movies. But recently she met a couple of new friends who actually share her interests. Apparently when the topic is Anime, Kiki can giggle and gab with the best of them.
The major topic for last night was the slumber party that is being held tonight. Kiki has been angling to go for days now. I hadn’t given her a solid answer because I had not met the parents in question. There is no way I’ll let my child spend the night at someone else’s house unless I’ve met them first. So last night Kiki put me on the phone with her friend’s mom. Within two sentences a realization clicked into my head. I remembered running into a former neighbor at the school band concert. I realized that I was now talking on the phone with this same former neighbor. I lived around the block from her when Kiki was two. We used to get together to share the joys and travails of parenting toddlers. I lost track of this former neighbor when she and I both moved away from the neighborhood. Apparently we both moved where our kids are attending the same junior high school.
After this joyous discovery, Kiki and her friend spent a further 15 minutes discussing how amazingly cool it was that they’d played together as babies. I’ll go drop Kiki off for the slumber party tonight and take a few extra minutes to catch up with my friend. Funny how the eddies of life bring people back together again.