Once Upon a Time,

there were three little girls.


All their respective parents were fast friends long before these girls were even thought of, so it's totally safe to say that they were more or less friends from the moment they were all born. (I'm pretty sure Eleanor was sad for nine months of pure loneliness before Katie came on the scene, and then they were rather forlorn for the next fourteen months, 'cause somewhere deep inside, they knew their friendship just wasn't complete without Julia.) (Or maybe they just laid around, sleeping and eating and crying, seeing as how they were infants and all.)

Anyway, back to the story.

For lots of years, they were bestest friends.


They fought. They giggled. They teased. They played. And played. And played. They argued. (Well, Katie and Eleanor argued; Julia sat sweetly in a corner, looking with wonder at the two hooligans yelling at each other.)

Then there was a time when they went different ways for a while, and weren't all three such close friends anymore.

But thankfully, that didn't last more than two years or so, and their friendship rebounded and grew tighter than ever, strengthened in part by the mere fact that they were all growing up, slowly but surely, and that Katie and Eleanor could go an entire hour without figuratively scratching each other's eyes out.

Then all of a sudden, with a mixture of excitement and terror, the girls all discovered that growing up was for real. It wasn't some pie-in-the-sky, distant, foreign thing. And it was starting in less than two weeks, when Eleanor moved off to the big, egotistical state of Texas.

Next Autumn comes college for at least Katie and Eleanor, and the future is pretty dang bright for Julia, too, although it involves less of college and more of... well, I'll stop there.

At any rate, the three girls realized that it would be a long time before they were [relatively] carefree people with flexible schedules again - maybe never again, 'til they were in the nursing home with little to do except play bingo and give their nurses and offspring a hard time.

So, they got together for a farewell bash.

They picnicked in the park, ('cause yay for saving money!) they rode the carousel at the Mall, they drank coffee, they took lots and lots of pictures, they threw ice cubes at ducks. They discussed what their grandchildren should call them, what they wanted to look like when they were old, food, boys, their respective immediate futures, the distant future, the past, marriage, lack-of-marriage, seat belts, and God's providence. They laughed. They linked arms. They made some pretty distinctive plans to stay in touch.

And Happily Ever After?

We'll see. But let's just say I have a pretty good feeling about that.