Jessica

Mid-morning July light touching the sides of trees

signals July mornings of my childhood, when the world held an immediacy

but I watched I Love Lucy in my bedroom, waiting, waiting, wishing for summer to be over

or on better days, rode my bike across town to Writers & Books for those amazing summer classes.

I first met Jessica the summer before 7th grade, didn't I?

Or was it the summer after 7th grade?

In the Village Green bookstore. Next to the checkout. 

She had a pale tan and laughing confidence and I knew right then we would be friends, almost sisters, for a long time, maybe for life.

We couldn't see how things would work out - three children, two marriages, one divorce between us, and a never-ending kinship from distant coasts.

Now she's coming to visit, and I can't wait. She named her child August, which is a reminder to me of the month we met, 

though of course we knew each other long before that. Something good comes of summer.

I think having such a close friend so far away helped bolster me all this time. 

Helped me be a confident leader, and sometimes an artist, or entrepreneur.

She's helped me grow so much in so many ways.

My first Thanksgiving with Pearl was also the first Thanksgiving in this house. Jessica came to bring light and safety and beauty and good food. We walked along the river under twisting bittersweet vines with a baby in the carrier on my chest.

I gave the baby a brother some years later, but I dream of a sister for her

and yet

as July teeters on the edge of August

and the child edges ever closer to 7th grade

I know, it's possible to find your own sister.