Hello Past, meet the Present.

It felt like hitting a wall of 'The Past' at high speed.
BAM!
Back to when we were a posse of 3 and trouble followed us.

I'm having coffee with my bestie of 33 years and a boy I haven't seen since graduation.
That boy, sitting in front of me, replaced by a man who looks like him but has aged, for the better I might add. Silver at his temples, laugh lines complimenting his brown eyes. (Why do laugh lines always look better on a man? )

Where's my old buddy Tony? The one that was a little bit quiet and shy outside our group of 3. Donna and I knew him better, he was the first one at bat when we executed our mastermind trouble plans. The first one to pull a stunt and throw us both under the bus.
I want to grab Tony, shake him. I'm mad at him for making me feel every one of those 30 years we last saw each other. This isn't supposed to happen, it's supposed to be the boy I knew come to visit. I look at Donna. Strange, she doesn't look different, it's the same Donna I knew then. I look inside myself, same.
Damn it, Tony.
I feel desperate, I'm not ready for time to walk up and bitch slap me across the face like that.

But hold on a minute. Look.. Tony just laughed. Yeahhh, there he is, that's the boy from high school. Screw you Father Time, we're back from the future.
I relax, memories sliding along the rich baritone of Tony's laugh. Old school days, the three of us at the lockers or in the school cafeteria. Laughter bubbles out before I can stop it. Memories flowing like an old time movie reel, settling themselves back into my memory folder I thought I had lost.
Yeah.. I knew I'd see the boy again.

Look at him, the poophead, aged better than we did. We colour our gray, he proudly displays it. Tony with young kids to help keep him that way. Me a (young) grandmother, Donna biding her time.
There he goes, laughing again without a care in the world. 30 years gone by but pppfffhhhtt it's nothing to him. Dumb handsome boy, it's not fair.

Ohhh but it's soooo good having the 3rd member or our old posse back. Betcha if we had a couple more days, we'd be back on old turf. Donna planning trouble our next escapade, Tony & I ready for action.
But we'll never know. It's time for me to go back home, Donna to get back to work and Tony to head back to his young family.
I hug him goodbye but I don't want to let the boy go. I'm 30 years younger for a brief moment, carefree and ready to play.
But Father Time is mocking us, pulling us apart. The posse evaporates. Donna and I watch our partner in crime as he walks away.
We head back in,settle ourselves on the couch and allow the memories to flood the room. We laugh, we struggle to remember, we revel in our long standing friendship.

Young Tony will be back and once again we'll be sitting on the bench upstairs in school laughing loud enough to be chastised by the teachers. Tony causing us to laugh even harder, landing us in detention. Mission accomplished, trouble finds us yet again.

An hour later as Donna's boys walk through the door, we unfold ourselves from the memories. But the kids of the past are now melded with the adults of the present.
The future?  Today will become tomorrow's past and the next day is the future so how about we just live for the moment.

And what a moment it was...

Tony

The Posse