“There she goes again.” George commented to his wife, Shirley. “They see each other all day at school. What more could they possible have to talk about?” He was talking about their daughter Rochelle, and her friend Jennifer. They would spend hours talking out of their bedroom windows to each other.
“You don’t understand the teenage girl.” Shirley responded. “You didn’t have any sisters, so you just don’t understand.”
“I guess I don’t.” George said. “Hours hanging out her bedroom window talking with Jennifer, who’s just next door. Why don’t they just go out in the yard and talk?”
“And risk someone overhearing their conversation? ” Shirley laughed, as she thought back to her own teenage days.
Tanya had been her best friend, and they lived right next door to each other. Tanya was a year older, but they were still best friends. Their bedrooms were both on the second floor of their perspective homes, and they were facing each other. The houses on the block were pretty close together, only about five of six feet between them. At ground level there was a sidewalk between the houses.
One day when Shirley was about eleven, she was in her bedroom reading about the Jackson 5 in her latest issue of “Right On!” magazine, when she heard someone say, “Hey girl, whatcha doin’?” Shirley looked around. At first she thought she was hearing things. Then she heard it again. “Hey Shirley. Over here. It’s me.” Shirley realized the voice was coming from out the window, so she looked up, and there was Tanya right across the way talking to her out of her bedroom window. “Hey Tanya.” Shirley responded. “What’re you doing?” From that point on, they talked to each other out of the window everyday.
It was their thing. Even if they saw each other all day at school, or hung out with each other all day, they would still have to end the day talking to each other out of their bedroom windows.
They talked about everything; friends, family, school, which boys they liked, what college they wanted to attend, everything. Now, that was a long time ago. Shirley hadn’t seen Tanya in years, and none of her old neighborhood friends knew of her whereabouts. She tried to find her on Facebook, but couldn’t.
George looked at her and just shook his head. It was Friday evening, and they were headed out to see this new movie called The Matrix, with Laurence Fishburne, and Keanu Reeves.
“Don’t try and understand it babe.” Shirley joked as they headed out the door. “It’s a girl thing.”
“Yeah,” George sighed. “And I guess I wouldn’t understand.