She was never able to express herself in words,
Maybe that’s why I became her closest friend.
The day he left her, she called me laughing:
“I’m finally free, let’s go shopping!”
We spent hours at the mall and by the time we left,
We had fourteen bags; they were all hers!
Only her empty wallet and my brows raised in bewilderment stopped her.
We went back to her car.
I didn’t scold her about the shoes and the earrings she bought, of which she already owned similar pairs,
Or the red dress that I knew she wouldn’t wear,
Or the teddy bears that she justified in an embarrassed voice with: “they’re for my nieces”,
I didn’t respond, even though I knew that she would be snuggling with these teddy bears tonight.
She pulled over all of a sudden into a side street.
She gazed out of the window for a while
Then she turned to me, biting her lip and trying to hold back tears, and said,
“I am sad. I am really sad!”