Lisa-Jo challenged me to write someone into words for just five minutes!
She is like a breath of fresh air when I barrel headlong into her purple jacket - hair windswept from the snow outside and smile quick and easy. Her face lights up as she whispers, "Hey!" and wraps me tight in a hug even as she finished her conversation with the scruffy boy to her right. He smiles, departs, and she turns to me.
"Hilary, how are you?" And in the question she leans forward, her mouth quickly straightening into a line of listening, her eyes locked onto mine, as if she wants to know the answer so much that her whole body is quivering with excitement.
She has brown and blond hair, strands mingling their way around her jacket hood and her hands fly around her, clasp and unclasp as she listens and then talks, and then listens again. Over and over she teaches me the patterns of conversation, as I watch her laugh silently at my slightly stupid joke and then again light up when I mention education and the movie and the promises of these next months.
She is small but her presence is palpable by this staircase and these dark blue banisters; palpable as I hear her smile in her words in her heart. She says goodbye like a greeting for the next time.
Love,
Hilary
