She came in incense and
patchouli. That was the way I remembered her. She was a free spirit voted most
likely never to be caged. Her hair was wild, and she walked everywhere
barefoot. She was a hippie child who never saw the 60’s but that didn’t matter.
I had such fond memories of her. Our paths diverged and it was some years later
until I saw her again. When I did see her she was pushing a baby stroller at
the mall. I'm sure it was her. She had cut her hair and for the most part looked like the suburban
mom who would soon be taking her kids to soccer practice. I have to admit I
felt kind of disappointed, but then maybe she would have been disappointed
in me as well. I watched her walk past without saying a word hoping she
wouldn’t notice me and she didn’t. I thought of the line ‘Once upon a time,
there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person’ from the
book by Anne Tyler, ‘Back When We Were Grownups.’ I don’t know if she had
turned into the wrong person for herself, but I was saddened by the whole
thing.
