Friendship and Togetherness

Friendship can come in different ways,

In the answer to the late-night phone call,

In the cheers for successes,

In the consolation for losses,

In the sharing of stories,

In the witnessing of life.

Friendship can come in many ways.

A few days ago, it came to me

In the sitting and watching,

In the giggling and joke-making,

In the splash of pool water and in the sinking onto an air mattress at 3 A.M.

Friendship comes in many ways.

One of the other ways it came just a few days ago was in the kitchen . . .

I pulled ingredients off of shelves,

Opened cupboard doors to measuring cups,

Pulled out drawers to reveal teaspoons and tablespoons.

One looked up recipes on her laptop,

The other read recipes off of chocolate chip bags.

I read off of brownie mix boxes.

I cracked eggs,

Added vegetable oil,

Water -

Too much water -

Went to get more mix,

To fix the mistake,

Make two pans of brownies instead of one.

I poured in the chips,

She stirred while I searched,

Laid out bowls

And another began measuring,

Pouring,

Dumping,

Mixing.

More bowls,

More measuring cups,

Someone stirred the batter,

Dumping all instead of mixing slowly,

Causing laughter and joy to overflow.

We changed the recipe,

Added cocoa not called for,

Made the cookies more chocolatey than they were.

Soon, two trays of brownies were in the oven,

Four cookie sheets were covered in unbaked dough.

One helped me squish out the snickerdoodles,

All three of us spooned out the chocolate-dark-chocolate-mint ones.

Still more ingredients were poured,

This time into a saucepan.

Cocoa boiled,

Tiny brown bubbles rising high.

Peanut butter was extracted from the jar.

I got it all over my hands

And on the outside of the measuring cup.

It was dropped into the boiling mixture.

Then came the oatmeal.

They both mixed,

One left to roll out waxed paper,

The other set down hot pads,

Moved the pan,

And they both dropped chocolate-peanut-butter no-bakes onto the counter.

I stood at the sink,

Washing dishes,

A chore I normally despise,

But this time did not mind.

I was surrounded by friendship,

Joy,

Laughter,

Friendship.

The evidence was all around me,

In the two trays of brownies

And the three batches of cookies.

In the helping hands still working

And, yes, in the dishes waiting to be cleaned.

Memories of other late-night escapades came to mind,

The crepes (inspired by an episode of Hogan's Heroes, of course),

The chocolate pudding (which splattered quite a bit, as I recall),

The empty two-liter of Diet Dr. Pepper (which kept us up until 5 A.M.).

For some reason, we like to bake together,

Or, sometimes, cook together,

And, always, eat together.

I remember making sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies at one's house (on two separate occasions),

Cooking an English breakfast and making lemon “pancakes” (they were really crepes) at another's (on the same day).

At some point, at someone's (I forget whose) house, we baked chocolate chip cookies the size of our heads (which we plan to do again - soon).

We really like to bake

And cook

And eat . . .

Together.

We like to do pretty much anything together.

That's what friendship is,

Never-failing togetherness.

Even when we're apart,

Friendship's ties still bind us together,

And I hope

And pray

And believe

That they always,

Always

Will.