Magic of Friendship

The red velvet bag holds treasures that only these two young girls can understand. They sit cross-legged at the top of the jungle gym, more like Siamese twins than seven year olds who have never met. There is magic here. Teddy bears, shell bracelets, ballerina bunnies: the chemistry is immediate and intense.

Lily arrived in the middle of the night, twenty year old Camry burgeoning with suitcases, coffee pot, tents, and little brothers. In the morning, the playing began. They share a language somehow that erases the twelve hundred miles between their homes, and the even bigger difference in the homes themselves. The same tight-lipped smiles. The same intelligent eyes. Even the same pigtails flapping as they run.

Their Dads started this way, eating honeydew and cantaloupe smashed hip to hip at THEIR Nana’s picnic table. The two oldest grandsons, their Mothers the closest of sisters. Both named Daniel, they have endured their share of lion battles. And now they watch as their oldest daughters forge a bond with make-believe and melons.

Somehow I feel they’ve already met. The communication is quiet. Even standing right in front of the platform on which they sit, I can barely hear the stories the dollies unfold. The plot thickens and youthful giggles fill the air. The girls and the teddy bears swap bracelets and necklaces and headbands. More huddled laughter ensues.

Together they fight the enemy lines of little brother pirates, their platform a ship that is attacked as they play. They fight the good fight, stealing an eye patch in the melee. Only ballerina bunny is a casualty of war. The pirates take off; the girls return to their whispered delights.

Later they return to the house, playing another game of pretend. This time they are orphans. They enter each room in delighted awe, pretending they have never seen such objects before and creating new names for things like chairs, vases, and the piano that was their great-grandmother’s.

But it is me who is awed. I have never seen anything like this mysterious bond formed in the sparkling eyes of these two cousins. Their quick friendship is magical, and a treasure unlike any the red velvet bag could contain.