Boxed-Up

My friend, Ms. Mo, packs up her apartment this week. With Ojibwa summer ceremonies, Mo gave thirty day notice on her apartment. Her lease is up at the end of this month so sometimes I stop by to help her pack. Started this effort last week. I stopped over, like I might on any given Saturday, with Thai food and some music to listen to. The contents of her cupboards and bookshelves filled. Moving was more of a theoretical exercise rather than a practicality. The boxes, like our conversation, had no particular destination.

I’ve stopped by on a couple of nightly occasions since to help sort her CD collection or fold clothes or whatnot. And what started as a small silence between us slowly swelled to fill up the emptying space.

Last night we were boxing things up when she pressed her thumb into that fleshy part of my palm. A habit we formed, years ago, which always means: Listen. Listen here. She says these boxes will probably move her back to Minneapolis. Next fall, maybe. Maybe sooner. There’s a dot on the map but not a route, yet, from here to there.

I can’t be surprised, really. Since she’s gone to the trouble of packing up her life into boxes it makes logical sense she’d unpack herself in Minneapolis. Past our high-school graduation Mo has only ever considered Lincoln her mail-stop in short spurts. A handful of unemployed summer months. Recovering from a winter break-up.

We’ve refined the habit of saying good-bye. One of us boarding a plane or packing up in a U-haul. I’m less likely, anymore, to be the moving object. I spend more time staying put. But this is still familiar territory.

Proximity doesn’t make a huge dent in the conversation between us. It only makes for a longer pause between each iteration.


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Currently Reading: The Terror Dream by Susan Faludi
Goodness: With all the rain this Spring, my garden is flower-freaking-tastic!
Lesson Learned: Should McK offer to refine your palate for mixed-drinks, don't preface every concoction with question: "So, is this one fruity?". Eventually, he'll renig on his offer.