Grace Turned 40 Today

Grace Turned 40 Today

905 words

         Grace turned 40 today. She got up at” O dark hundred” about 4:30 a.m. as usual, went for her morning jog, turned on her computer while drinking coffee and half-watching the news, went over her to-do lists, updated her journals, fed her cat, before she ate Kefir for breakfast, and went out at about 6 am to beat the horrific traffic heading towards the Bay Bridge from her home in Berkeley’s famed Gourmet Ghetto next to the original Peet's Coffee on Walnut and Vine, where she picked up her usual large café Americano with cream, cinnamon, CBD oil, nutmeg and turmeric.

          She then headed towards her job in downtown San Francisco, stopping off at a slug line to pick up her usual car mates. She was the Deputy Head of the Passport agency, which was a two-year domestic assignment in the U.S. Foreign Service. And she was bidding for an overseas assignment, perhaps in Thailand.

         When she got to her office, she turned on her computer and went through the numerous happy birthday messages, accepted a friend’s request for dinner that night in the Sunset District, and then noticed a friend request from Sara Sanders, her college roommate she had not heard from in almost 15 years. They had stayed in Farley House and then went to the same sorority.

         They had a falling out in their senior year. They both wanted the same guy, Sam Adams. She beat her to the punch sleeping with him, even though she knew that Grace had feelings for Sam and Sam had feelings for her. They ended their friendship over this affair, and she had lost touch over the years. Grace and Sam got married, but she refused to attend the wedding and refused all invitations from both Sam and Sara until they finally got the point that the relationship was over.


         Despite the breakup, she did have fond memories of their time together and they were pretty close politically and in terms of background. Both upper-middle-class kids went to the University of the Pacific in Stockton as their safety school as their grades were not quite good enough for the University of California and they thought that UOP would be a better choice than the State College system as they would be able to meet a lot of children from upper-class families. They both majored in political science as well, and were ASUOP student senators, and on the debate team.

         Grace was brunette, with sad brown eyes She was stocky built, mixed race, mostly Eastern European background, but also part Hispanic, Native American (Creek, Cherokee, and Seminole, part of the Lost Tribe of the Cherokee nation), and Asian as most people from Eastern European background are given the Mongolian hordes mass rapes during their conquests.

         Sara had blond hair and soft blue almost azure, friendly eyes, and was a compact, petite blond woman of mostly German and Irish background and also part native American being part Sioux Indian.

         Sam had black hair, and intense dark blue eyes that sparkled like diamonds when he looked at you. He was a very attractive man, of mostly British, Irish, and German background with some Polish and Italian as well. He made the “girls' eyes flutter, and the gay boys stutter, made the girls go “My, oh, my” and the gay guys sigh.” *. He was from an old money family, having grown up in Boston, and attending Boston Latin School, and two years at Northeastern University. He had transferred to UOP because he wanted to experience California.. He counted the Sam Adams who founded the brewery as his great-great-great grandfather. He was stocky, 6 feet 4 inches, and on the baseball team, debate team, and ASUOP student senate as well. They had all met in the debate team.

         She accepted the friend request and suggested meeting up soon. Sara had moved to San Jose and suggested meeting up in the City and Grace suggested her favorite Thai place in the Sunset, knowing that Sara had become a big Thai food and culture geek after a stint in the Peace Corps.

         When they met, they soon realized how they had taken different paths in life. Sara had divorced Sam after three years of marriage, as it turned out, Sam was a bad drunk getting violent and abusive when he drank, and was also abusing cocaine, meth, and weed. and Sara had also become an addict.

         She went clean after a stint in a Christian rehab center where she was born again as a Christian and became active in both the Pro-life and anti-LGBTQ communities. She said that she and Sam broke up when Sam came out as bisexual and wanted to have a threesome with his gay lover, Garry. Sara had gone down the Q route and was deeply into Q conspiracy theories and was a big MAGA supporter.

         This horrified Grace, who had become involved in the fight to preserve and expand LGBTQ rights and had become an open bisexual. She did not go to Church, was disdainful of Christians, and hated Trump with a passion.

         Their conversation became so heated that the owner suggested that they take their argument outside, and they settled the bill and went out. They both promised to meet again and continue the relationship, but they both knew that was a lie.

         She reached out to Sam and got together with him, and they were soon a couple. Sam had cleaned up his act after going through a secular rehab program. And had become a human rights attorney. When they got married, they invited Sara to the wedding, but she did not respond or attend.


1. BEGIN your story or poem with this line, bolded:
Grace turned 40 today.

2. Make reuniting with an estranged friend part of your story or poem - does the estrangement end or continue?

3. Choose FRIENDSHIP as one of your genres.
*From the Poem “Kiss Me, Chris Pine”, from the collection of poems entitled “The Power of Summer” by Waide Riddle published in 2020. see my review on my blog “The World According to Cosmos.com

“(https://theworldaccordingtocosmos.com)

https://medium.com/@jakealler/review-of-waide-riddle-power-of-summer-9b9d77b14be...

https://wp.me/p7NAzO-2Lo

O dark hundred is military/intel jargon for the time two to three hours before dawn when special forces and other operatives get up to get ready for dawn operations. Depending on location and time of year it is between 2 a.m. to 6 a.m.