Baby Girl

I met Sarah C Garelle when she was 7. I was 7, too. She was a beast. Slamming doors. Like oil / water with her father. Tears. Screams. Drama. Competitive. Intelligent. Passionate. Envious. Peaches and Cream. In 4th grade she played Juliet in the Shakespeare play...she wore a glorious white dress with gold trim...her hair was long and copper and she delivered her lines with an expertise incongruous with her age...she never flubbed her lines. She was not shy. She shone. She developed a small crush on the kid who played Romeo...(obviously)...but unfortunately, life did not imitate art and while she read into her lines, he was a lame 10 year old (sorry) who said the words 'love' and 'juliet' like he was saying cup, chair, or bus...d-r-a-b...

Anyway---there is more to say about Sarah, endless endless anecdotes. But I have to skip the years 1990-2008 to just say that baby girl delivered a baby boy this week...in the water, without meds..."i deserve a medal, i think...." she says...yes baby girl, you and 52% of the population from the beginning of time until the end of the universe! But this is how us only children think...we. are. special...and we consider ourselves only children even though we spent every summer and every day and many years in the same bed and room and house and soccer field and pool and car and bathroom and sleeping bag...under the stars on a deck in modesto, california, when it was too hot to sleep inside...we tick like sisters, though...no nuance missed no reference unchecked no memory not shared...right now our lives are as different as...hmm, as she and i...only now am i realizing it might have been a much lonelier childhood without her...we gave each other license to be young, honest, off-the-cuff, lewd, mean, loving. highs and lows, but mostly joy, like motherhood.

mather graham steele, b. july 14th 2009.