My friend Naima just returned from a week and a half in Alabama. When I asked her how things went, she said, "I got off the plane and it was so hot- so hot I just melted and thought, I'm home." Then she used words like Daddy, dandelion wine, magnolia and honeysuckle. She sounds like she’s singing a little when she talks, and when she’s at work with me, her music lolls me happily to quitting time.
More Naima praise:
She has a full soul that pours out and bathes me when she tells stories. And they are good stories. For instance, today I found out that Naima was a phone sex operator in college. When she wanted to quit, the same adult entertainment company trained her as a psychic. A couple of times she got nervous because she was off base with people, so she just hung up the phone- like the time a woman called and Naima said, "I don't see things going well or evolving with your boyfriend," and the woman said, "But...he just proposed to me."
Also, every time we talk, she makes me laugh.
She asks questions like she's inhaling the world and then breathing herself and her inquiries back into it- as such a breather, she looks in place and involved with wherever she is.
She compares paper cuts with me. When one of mine is bad, she makes me feel like I hiked up my pant leg to show her the shattered knee I got in 'Nam. It's so fulfilling to be validated like that.
She notices a billion things.
************************
I'm glad she's back.
No comments:
Post a Comment