Gravity or Instinct, I Just Knew

Tuesday’s dinner was done and it was time to head out for a favorite weekly destination.  I still didn’t have my license, so I climbed into Mom’s black Integra and she drove me to the local elementary school for my Girl Scout meeting in the library.

The glowing sun was still up, but lowering in the sky, casting long light shadows across the campus.  I always felt peaceful walking towards the library from the parking lot.  Having moved many times, this was my third troop in two states and full of great girls. 

While I only joined this particular Cadette troop in the eighth grade, they had been together for several years already.  And most of us had bridged up to Seniors, when we graduated from junior high to high school.

It wasn’t like another gathering of school friends, later in the day.  Several of the girls, did go to the public high school with me, but there were also girls from the private Catholic school’s all girl campus in a neighboring town, girls from the other public high school in town, and more girls who attended the boarding school at the base of the mountain nearby as local day students.  We were quite a mix and yet, schools didn’t separate us, rather our Girl Scout troop united us.

This particular Tuesday evening, one of the girls from one of those other schools brought her best friend to a meeting, just to show and share what Girl Scouts was all about.  I couldn’t tell you what she was wearing or what she was doing, other than smiling while her eyes darted around as she took all of us in, when this new girl walked into her first Girl Scout meeting.  But I can tell you this, I knew we would be friends. 

Every neuron in my head, every molecule in my heart knew we would connect.  I could feel the strong tug of an unseen force propelling me towards her, like the ocean’s tide, compelled by the moon’s gravity.  And a split second after our introduction, I put my arm through hers, knowing she must have thought I was a total loon, and started marching her across the institutional carpet, through the small library, introducing her to everyone else.

My response was purely instinctual when I linked my arm through hers.  Twenty years later, she’s like a sister to me.

I am writing along with RemembeRED, from The Red Dress Club for this first time.  We were prompted to:  "Imagine you are meeting someone for the first time. You want to tell them about yourself.  Instead of reciting a laundry list of what you do or where you're from, please give us a scene from your life that best illustrates your true self."

If you are a regular here, you might be able to guess that this girl, now woman, is one of my Four Musketeers, who responds to the camp name, Snoopy!  And don't worry, I didn't steal her from her best friend, who responds to the camp name Woodstock, because she's also a Four Musketeer! :>