Serendipity

[vaneramos]

Saturday evening I spent the better part of an hour telling ghostsandrobots the story of Peter and Nancy, two friends from university whose lives have intertwined significantly with mine. They were the only Christian friends who didn't freak out when I came out. We have drifted apart since, and I hadn't heard from them in four years. A few weeks ago I dreamt about Nancy, then someone told me Peter had been ill. Then I had another dream, more propitious, which also seemed to refer to her. Talking to Ziggy on Saturday, I decided it's high time I contacted them.

It's queer identities week at University of Guelph, and this morning I helped staff a book sale at the University Centre to raise funds for OOTS. My shift was nearly over when a familiar figure—tall, lean, piercingly blue eyes, his Mennonite heritage obvious—emerged from the elevators nearby. It was Peter. He was dressed for work, and looked healthy as ever. I caught his eye, but it took him a moment to recognize me. It turns out he works at the university now, as a therapist presumably (last time we talked he was commuting to Brantford). Nancy still works at the pig research farm in Arkell. They have three children; the oldest is Brenna's age. It was a happy reunion, in fact the old chemistry of one of life's longest friendships came rolling back (we were roommates in 1985 to 1986). We both had to carry on, but I still have their number and promised to call.

Comments

[lichtgespinst.livejournal.com]

That's great, Van! I hope you will be able to reconnect with your old friends! That's the nice thing when you live in the same part of the world for a while. You can run into people you know.
When i first came here this was one of the hardest things for me. From time to time i thought i recognized a person and then i realized i will probably never meet anybody from my past just by accident on the street or in a store or an airport again.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

That would be difficult, although there are few people from my earlier life I would ever care to run into. Peter is perhaps the only male friend I knew before the age of 31 who could have made me happy by emerging from that elevator. Still, I experience my own kind of unrootedness, and I'm glad I've been able to put new roots down.

[ghostsandrobots.livejournal.com]

Wow! Great!

What timing. This sort of thing seems to happen a lot with people on similar wavelengths. :)

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Though it would have surprised me even more to see you come walking out of the elevator! And your last visit was almost that spontaneous. :-)

[ghostsandrobots.livejournal.com]

Had a dream not last night but the night before that I've been meaning to type up especially for your benefit. Definitely related to our conversation and on "the wavelength." Hopefully will get to it today.

[missprune.livejournal.com]

Wow, that strikes me as quite a piece of synchronicity, no?

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Yes, and it's not the only one that has happened recently. The other ones were less pleasant, still I wonder what it means.