Tea on Tuesdays.

Diet caffeine free Lipton tea was all she would drink
at our Tuesday afternoon meetings where we would ponder our futures.
While I sat there stuffing my face full of any high calorie things I could gorge myself on. She would start in on intellectual conversations, never wandering to such mindless musings as boys, makeup
or the size of our thighs.

No, Tuesdays would not allow such topics for us.

We would discuss college courses, mutual funds, the decline of communism and how democracy still had its flaws.We were older than our years should have allowed us to be.

Proper English was a must. The literature we mulled over was never to be from the current best seller list
"It must be a classic."
I've since forgotten the lessons, the quotes she spouted and the classes we agreed to take but I can still hear the classical music she insisted on humming. I can still picture the pinkie held in the air while sipping slowly in an exaggerated gesture.

She was so worldly to me then. When we were ten.

The suffering hidden behind the words escaped us both. We were hiding the same secret at opposite ends of the spectrum. I'm still here, alone now,
drinking diet caffeine free lipton tea.