Don’t Need To Be Present To Give A Present

(I moved a long way away to university. My best friend of 10 years decided that she would prefer to stay at home and marry her boyfriend and work the same job that she’s always had. I carried on to do a Master’s at the same university and now also live in the area I studied, since I have a job there with good eventual promotion prospects. Over the five years I’ve been away she often got upset and talked about how everybody abandoned her, and didn’t understand that our choosing to go to university or to not settle down to marriage and kids straight out of school or even to stay in the same backwater little town had very little to do with hating her or her lifestyle choices and everything to do with just wanting to find something different. Whilst we used to talk on Skype a lot she rarely replies now and I literally cannot remember the last time she initiated a conversation, so I am surprised to see my phone ping to let me know I have a text from her.)

Friend: “Hey! I’ve just sent you an email list to let you know what I’d like you to get [Very Young Son] for Christmas! Don’t worry about postage. You can drop them next time you’re this way as [Very Young Son] is too little to mind if they’re late. Thanks. Bye!”

(The last time I heard from her before that was—you guessed it—letting me know what her young son wanted for his birthday!)