bobquasit: (Sebastian Riding)
bobquasit ([personal profile] bobquasit) wrote2006-08-27 12:01 am
Entry tags:

Momentary Friendships

Tonight Sebastian made a friend, and lost her. And for some reason that makes me sad.

We were out at a Jo-Ann Fabrics that's going to be closing and moving soon. The store was more than half empty, with a large empty section blocked off.

The only other child in the store was a little girl there, about the same size as Sebastian. A smart little girl, with glasses; she had just turned six. Her name was Chase.

She and Sebastian played together, the way that children do. They had close to an hour to run around, and make a "secret hiding place", and pretend that a shelf was a computer; they told each other about their computers at home. And about the costumes they'd wear at Halloween.

And then they started picking up all the little odds and ends that you can find around a store that's getting ready to close, and putting them in their secret hiding place.

When the time came for us to go, we told Sebastian to say goodbye. "Bye", he said abruptly and quietly, suddenly getting shy again. Chase was obviously sad. She'd asked Sebastian for his phone number, but neither we nor her mother were ready to allow that.

So they had a few more minutes of playing together, and then they said goodbye again out at the cars; by a coincidence, we'd parked right next to theirs.

It makes me sad that Sebastian made a friend and lost her all in the same hour. I suppose the odds are that they'll never meet each other again.

[identity profile] meopta.livejournal.com 2006-08-27 04:24 am (UTC)(link)
Spud always wants to keep those friends and will mention ones from ages and ages ago that I've long forgot. Makes me wonder if that feeling you sometimes get about having met someone before springs from a chance event like that when you were kids.

[identity profile] bobquasit.livejournal.com 2006-08-28 03:07 am (UTC)(link)
It's all too weird...you know, I just remembered that when I was about Sebastian's age, I used to look out of our breakfast nook window at a little girl in the next house. And she used to look at me.

We'd just look out at each other. And now she must be a middle-aged woman, assuming she's not dead.

Weird.

[identity profile] moonlitmagik.livejournal.com 2006-08-28 02:31 am (UTC)(link)
god im sad too! why wouldnt you let him give out his digits?

[identity profile] bobquasit.livejournal.com 2006-08-28 03:10 am (UTC)(link)
Actually I only heard about that after the fact. But he's still only four, after all. I don't know...maybe it's a sort of coldness and shyness here. You know what I mean; I guess it would have felt awkward to be exchanging phone numbers with her mother.

I wish there was some way that Sebastian could have kept in touch with her, though. I'd give him his own email address, but he can't read yet. And in any case, the net is far too dangerous for a kid.

[identity profile] moonlitmagik.livejournal.com 2006-08-28 03:11 am (UTC)(link)
no kidding.. i grew up with the net and i know how much trouble can happen