Sequestering Lynn Binn

     The person I have known longer than any other person on this planet, excluding blood relations, is Lynn Binn.  Back in the - high school - day, I called her Lynn Binn and she called me Sue Boo.  We have stayed in touch all these years.  And although we rarely talk these days, when we do, it's as if no time has passed.  Joy of joys, she is visiting me for a quick over night stay.

     At breakfast out, we chit chat non stop over gravy and biscuits, frou frou hot chocolate, and gluten free pancakes with real butter and hot (not warm) syrup.  She reminds me of the time in college when three of us friends went to a school outing, which included a potluck dinner.  She had brought a loaf of homemade bread, but for some unfathomable reason, it never got opened.  We carried it as we walked home, our trio enjoying the comradery as only the carefree youth can.  Half way home, we stopped at a park bench to talk and giggle some more.  Someone decided to open the bread.  But it wasn't sliced yet, and none of us had ever eaten unsliced bread before.  We looked at each other and grinned, digging in barbaric style, grabbing large handfuls of bread; we were gleeful in our rebellion.  We ate the whole thing!

     I hadn't thought about that story in decades, but it all came flooding back to me - all of it, even the touch of the bread and the silly feeling of being naughty for eating it unsliced.  I said, "Lynn, did we laugh as much as I remember us laughing, or am I just making that up?"  Without skipping a beat she said, "Oh yea, we laughed all the time".  That's what an old friend can do for you, something that no one else can.  We were there together.  We remember together.

     I am a pit stop on her current road trip as she is traveling to be with her daughter who will give birth soon.  While we are eating and talking, talking, talking, phone calls and texts come from loving family at both ends of her journey asking, have you left Boise yet?  Are you on your way?  I tell her to announce to them, "Give it up, for I have been sequestered for the time being."  I'll let her go soon enough, but for right now she is mine to enjoy, the only person who can fit this particular niche in my world.