Pillow Talk

I was recently divorced and raising my three small children. I was going to college part-time and working part-time. My life was hectic. With my husband gone, in addition to caring for the kids alone, I had never taken care of a house all by myself before and the challenges were many.

When the washing machine broke down, I couldn't afford to hire a repairman so I decided to tackle it myself. First, I had to drain out all the water that filled the tub when it stopped working. I got a hose, put it in my mouth and inhaled deeply. My intent was if I created enough suction, the water would go up the hose to where I could drain it into a bucket. What happened is, when I inhaled, I breathed in a huge mouthful of dirty water, gagged and immediately threw up. Obviously, my plan was not going to work. I threw the hose down in disgust and dry heaving, cleaned up the mess.

My second challenge of the day was, a few minutes later, my children returned from an overnight camp-out at the neighbors. I hadn't met the neighbors yet. We had lived in the house almost a year by that time but I was never one to venture out and purposely meet my neighbors. I preferred to keep to myself. But soon after we moved in, my children quickly met the neighbor’s children and they played together on a near daily basis. When my kids were asked to spend the night in a tent two doors down in my neighbor’s backyard, I felt comfortable enough to allow them to spend the night.

Even though I had left the sliding glass door unlocked just in case my children had to return in the middle of the night, when I woke up the next morning, my children were still gone. That was a good sign. I hoped that meant they'd had a good time. 

When they returned to the house laughing and joking, I noticed none of them had brought their pillows. That was the only thing they took with them as the neighbors provided the blankets and the other necessary camping gear.

I was a single parent who was struggling financially and couldn't afford to buy them new pillows. I was frustrated that they returned without them.

"Where's your pillows?" I demanded with my hands on my hips.

"Dunno." My oldest boy answered.

"Go back and get them!" I insisted.

A few minutes later, all three returned without their pillows. They said they couldn't find them.

"What? What do you mean you can't find them?"

All three insisted they'd checked everywhere and the pillows couldn't be found.

That did it. I was beyond furious now. I was pretty sure that since we lived in a low income neighborhood, the neighbors had kept their pillows for themselves. Well, that wasn't going to happen on my watch!

I stomped over to the neighbors and banged on the door. When the door opened, I was met by a woman who was just about my age. Her hair was messy. She looked as frazzled as I felt.

I was not in a good mood. Even though she appeared nice, I’d have none of it. I wasn’t in the mood for pleasantries.

“Where’s my kids’ pillows?” I demanded.

“What?” She asked, puzzled.

I explained that my children had brought their pillows to the overnight camp-out and had returned without them.

“Oh, you must be their Mom. Hi! I’m Jaci.”

I ignored her nice-ness. I came for the pillows and wanted the pillows back and was not going to leave without them.

Jaci and I searched her entire three-bedroom house. We looked under the couch, under beds and in closets. We searched the tent that was still up and thoroughly searched the shrubs and under the trees in the back yard. No pillows.

I was so frustrated, and exhausted by now, suddenly, I burst out laughing. I’d never done that before. I didn’t know what had gotten into me. I couldn’t explain it.

Jaci began laughing, too. I think she was laughing because I was laughing. Before long, we were both holding our stomachs with our arms, laughing hysterically until the tears streamed down our faces.

After I calmed down a bit, I apologized for my outrageous behavior. I was pretty sure she thought she had a crazy woman/neighbor on her hands.  

“I understand. Believe me. I’ve had days like that, too,” she sympathized.

“I’m Pam,” I introduced myself. “I live two doors down from you. I’m the kids’ Mom.”

“Hi Pam,” she smiled. “Want a cup of coffee?”

“Sure. Why not?” 

We sat down, drank the delicious coffee and composed ourselves. Then we got to talking.

Even though I was single and Jaci was married, her husband worked construction and was out of town for weeks and sometimes months at a time. He had just left to go once again out of town and she’d be alone until the next weekend when he returned. Her three children were just about my kids’ ages. As we talked, I learned we had similar interests and backgrounds. Surprisingly, we had a lot in common. 

Before the afternoon was over, Jaci said, “I’ll buy you new pillows!” Even though I didn’t take her up on her kind offer, with that statement, our friendship was cemented.

That was over forty years ago.

As the years passed, I got married again. Jaci was my Matron of Honor. Eventually, we moved away from each other to live in different towns. Our kids grew up, got married and moved out. We went from twenty-somethings to becoming doting grandparents.

Throughout all the years and all the changes, we’re still best friends. We still regularly keep in touch.

Just the other day we were talking on the phone, and we reminisced about our initial meeting.

“We never did find those pillows!” Jaci laughed.

No, we didn’t.

Instead, we found so much more. . .