This Can Fly

I met this guy in high school & while I clearly remember his poetic blue eyes that teared up when he laughed & his-ever-so-serious its-the-end-of-the-world attitude, I had no idea how our lives would cross again and again. He became one of my best friends.
But time brings change.
After his time in the Marines & his first failed marriage, we quickly bonded again...spending day after day entertaining ourselves in the simplest of fashions...usually soul-searching.
Then, one Sunday night we went out & at the end of the night he told me he was leaving in two days for Virginia...to do the 'right' thing.
The next day I bought him 'Where the Sidewalk Ends' by Shel Silverstein.
I stuck a small note in the cover... 'Call me if you need me or ever just want to'
and I never heard from him again.
I moved away, went to college and graduated.
Years and years later, I saw him... on a Monday night.
He was renting, along with another guy from high school, a 5 bedroom, 4 story house in the city.
Tuesday night, I started moving in. An inverted Three's Company.
The timing was perfect for me & over the course of the next 3 years, I found these two to be some of the best room-mates I had ever had.
I also found one of my best-friends all over again.
Then one day, I told them I was moving out.
Shortly thereafter, they each moved their own way.
Each of us soon met our spouses-to-be.
My husband, then my fiancee, and I invited my friend over to cook-out. My husband had met him before, but he, nor I , had met his recent girlfriend quickly turned wife.
He said he'd call back.
The next night my phone rang.
It was him & he sounded hysterical. He was begging me & pleading with me, asking me to please explain, telling me I didn't understand, she didn't understand...
And I didn't understand. His speech was definitely impaired by his upset-edness.
Then he said 'I love her...please explain our relationship honestly to her' and he passed the phone to one unwilling listener.
My heart broke for him. She was fit for Jerry Springer, she was so upset with her missed convictions
I told her we had never been anything but friends. She said 'Impossible! High school? Living together!'
I told her I had seen him through girlfriends & marriages, the Marines & job changes. Dripping with sarcasm, she said 'I'm sure that's not all you've seen'
I told her that he was a dear friend & that a friend of his was a friend of mine & she said 'whatever!'
I told her I was engaged & that the only reason I had called the night before was to invite them over for a cook-out...where she could meet my fiancee. She said 'Likely story!'
I even put my fiancee on the phone with her.
She asked him if I put him up to it & if he was really some gay neighbor getting paid to lie.
I took the phone back and asked to speak back to my friend one last time.
She cussed as she flung the phone at him.
I told him that this was the end of the sidewalk for us for now & that should he ever need me or even just want to, to call me. I'd always support him on his choices. He was a good man and a good friend.
He said 'Thanks for understanding.'
And that was truly the last time I ever spoke to him.
That was almost five years ago.
I would've known him twenty-five years now.
If his wife is still his wife, I hope she knows that none of us ever lied to her... and most importantly, he didn't lie.
We were only friends... Mitch Jolley & I.
I hope he knows that the only reason I let it go like that was because although we were only friends, I considered him to be one of my best friends & I loved him... and he had married her & she would never understand... we were only friends.