Holiday meeting

Holiday meeting

fiction
edward w Pritchard

five minutes is so long/ repost, edit

At the Holidays I ran into an old girl friend from my youth. We hadn't been intimate back then but I thought of her sometimes and I ran into her and her husband and two kids at the home center store, the store where I didn't like to go but had to sometimes, like today.

Her husband was one of those people who can only value things or people monetarily and it was tedious to be around him. The kids weren't too bad but she didn't seem connected to her own children. The husband had a habit of saying exactly the obvious thing in the wrong way that could be quite cloying. All in all my old girlfriend's family didn't seem a family at all.

The children and the husband wandered off and we stood and talked for a minute or two.  My friend from before relaxed a little as we talked about the old causes and ideals and it was pleasant to remember what I had liked about her. Eventually her family came back and she had to resume her role again. It was a persona that I didn't know and didn't like.

I was glad when they had to go, five minutes is so long to be with some people.