You, Me, and the Space Between

Tessie — You look beautiful. I always knew you would be driving a Mercedes.
Liat — This time without Tequila hidden behind the front tire.
Tessie — What was the name of your puppy?
Liat — Mae Ling.
Tessie — How could ever forget Mae Ling? I found myself in Hoboken years ago and ate dinner across the street from where we had the baby shower.
Liat — Those petit fours.
Tessie — I think they have savory bagels here. Not sure they are smothered in spinach and mozzarella, though. I lived next to a statue of three wolves for a few years in Atlanta. Reminded me of house sitting in Mount Vernon.
Liat — I was so scared.
Tessie — I tell the story of the judge at your wedding every few years when people talk about memorable weddings. It took us four years to finish our wedding album. Remember when we talked about growing old together, after our husbands die.
Liat — Like in North Carolina? Or Washington? Somewhere near water.
Tessie — You used to tell B about that plan. How are they doing?
Liat — E is a brain surgeon in Connecticut and B is an actor in NYC.
Tessie — Apples don’t fall far from the tree. Half lifetimes fly.
Liat — Half lifetimes fly.
Tessie — What do you look forward to now?
Liat — I look forward to spending many years with my children and grandchildren and never leaving the house without lipstick. I look forward to staying healthy and eating biscuits and gravy and cheese grits. I look forward to lighting up rooms and singing every day.
Tessie — I never hear about anyone anymore.
Liat — I lost track of it all over the years.
Tessie — Me, too. What is the saying? Reasons, seasons, and lifetimes. I remember when I returned from Bali and you told me my entire energy had changed?
Liat — It had.
Tessie — What did I look like?
Liat — You glowed.
Tessie — I have this one picture of me writing in my journal on a porch early in the morning. I was barely 40.
Liat — I remember that picture.
Tessie — My roommate took it one of the last days of the retreat.
Liat — “O mio babbino caro/ Mi piace, è bello, bello/ Vo’ andare in Porta Rossa/ A comperar l’anello!”
Tessie — We were always singing.
Tessie — “No more talk of darkness/ Forget these wide-eyed fears/ I’m here/ nothing can harm you/ My tears will warm and calm you.”
Tessie — You always got the guy. 
Liat — “In my life/ There are so many questions and answers/ That somehow seem wrong/ In my life/ There are times when I catch in the silence/ The sigh of a faraway song/ And it sings/ Of a world that I long to see/ Out of reach/ Just a whisper away/ Waiting for me”
Tessie — “The man in the moon is a lady/ A lady with lipstick and pearls.”
Liat — “A law was made a distant moon ago here/ July and August cannot be too hot/ and there’s a legal limit to the snow here”
Liat and Tessie — “In Camelot”
Tessie — “Somewhere over the rainbow/ Way up high/ There’s a land that I heard of/ Once in a lullaby”
Liat — “Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly./ Birds fly over the rainbow; why, then, oh why can’t I?/If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow, Why, oh why can’t I?