"Sherry? Hi, its Robyn... I'm stuck in traffic on 7th street. Is there an alternative route I can take? Cause this is really bad..."
Sherry is one of my mom's best friends from high school, and I was already 30 minutes late for dinner at her house with her husband, son, and my parents.
"Hi Sweetie, yes, can you turn left at B Steet?"
"Yes, I'm actually right at that intersection."
"Okay, then you're going to head south, and turn onto 4th."
"Got it."
"You'll hit 2 or three stop signs, and our street will be on the right. Do you want me to stay on the line?"
"No, I think I got it." So I continued to drive, looking for the street where I had spent a majority of my childhood.
All of a sudden, there it was, and I was going too fast to turn. So I kept driving, looking for a good spot to turn around. There was a lot of construction past their street, and I knew it was not going to be easy to go back the way I came. In fact, it was going to be impossible. I turned left at a stop light and figured I would be able to just go around the block. No such luck because there was a canal in my way, and no option to cross it anywhere in sight.
As I was driving east, looking for a point to cross, my phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Hey!" What's going on?" It was Sherry's son. I am older than he is by exactly five days, and I always hold it over his head. We hadn't talked to each other in about three years.
"Not much, what's going on with you? Where are you?" I asked him, confused...
"I'm at the house, where are you?"
"I think I'm lost. See, I missed your street, and there's all this construction, so I can't get back the way I came, and there's nowhere to cross the stupid canal..."
"Uh-huh...What are the cross-streets?"
I told him my location, and then said, "Yeah, I think I'm going to make a U-Turn."
"That's probably a good idea. Where are you exactly?" he asked as I drove back to the street right before the intersection that was blocked by construction.
I said, "I'm sitting at a stop sign across the soccer field from your house, looking at a baseball dug-out." I gave him the cross streets.
"Stay there."
"Why?"
"I'm coming to find you."
"Okay," I said, "I thought I was kind of far away."
"You're not. I'll jog..." There was a pause in our conversation, "Now I'm winded," he said. "Can you see me?"
I looked around, but didn't see him anywhere. "No, not yet," I replied. I just sat in my car looking at the park across the street. I can remember playing in the park with him when we were young. I was on one side, and his house was on the other. I waited, and watched to see where he was coming from. He was still on the line.
"What are you driving? Are you at a stop-sign?" He asked.
"A little white car," I said, "And yes, I'm sitting at a stop sign."
"I think I see you...Do you see me? I'm on your left."
I looked to the left and saw him walking toward me. He looked a little different from the last time I had seen him, but was still the same.
He said, "I'm going to hang up now."
"Okay," I said, closed my phone, and then unlocked my passenger side door.
He came around and let himself in.
"Hi," he said.
"Hi," I said, "Thanks for coming to find me, I don't think I would have been able to figure out how to get to your house from here."
"You're right," he said, "there is a lot of construction, this is ridiculous."
He then directed me to the house. Turns out I wasn't that far away, but it would have taken me a long time to figure it out on my own.
I parked the car and we both got out.
"It's good to see you," I said.
I locked my door, and he locked his, and I walked up to the sidewalk.
He offered me a hug and stepped back. We were both grinning.
"Good to see you too," He replied.
And we walked inside.
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