News from the Plains: All this RED can make you BLUE
Four Couples
by Barry Friedman
From Public Radio FM 89.5
(No politics today--not really)
I want to tell you about four couples ...
Couple Number One
My new neighbors.
I was walking outside. She was sitting on the porch.
“What are you doing?”
“I should stay away from staple guns.”
“We’ll get along fine,” I said.
Next morning, they were outside, in the back, drinking coffee, smiling, arms around each other, petting their big dog—a dog, it turned out, that was also loud--Stephen King loud.
“We should get a dog,” I said to Melissa, my girlfriend, as we watched them from our kitchen window.
“You don’t like dogs.”
“Good point.”
"We should stop staring."
"Another good point."
Couple Number Two
Melissa’s sister Amy lives in a trailer in Yukon, Oklahoma. She has a son, Grayer, (that’s his name) who’s always smiling. Strangest thing—like he’s in on an inside joke. Amy, too, always smiling. And now pregnant again. Two babies soon in diapers … in a trailer ... in Yukon. Are they crazy? The photos of the three of them, though—soon the four of them—on blankets on chairs inside the trailer. Yeah, smiling. Maybe not crazy.
Couple Number Three
When she was single, we sat at a comedy club bar once and talked of my first ex-wife and then she showed me pictures of her new love. It didn’t look right; they didn’t fit. We went on one date years earlier, she reminded me--said I tried kissing her. I don’t remember, but it sounds like me. The other day, she showed me new pictures of her new love. This one seems right. You can tell by how they lean into each other.
Couple Number Four
Laura and I met on Facebook, if you can call meeting on Facebook meeting. We agree on Elizabeth Warren, the seediness that was Urban Tulsa Weekly, the insanity in OKC at the state capitol. She reposts my stuff; I repost hers. She’s smarter than I am, but thank God she doesn’t make a thing about. She got married out of state, commutes to Stillwater twice a week where she works, teaching students about civics and ... civility. We’re going to have dinner soon, the four of us. Melissa and I are going to have to study—this is a smart, savvy couple and we're not ready.
Okay, so you’re probably asking—I would be asking—what’s the point here?
So, you have neighbors, you like them, they’re not good around staple guns, they have discriminating tastes, they live in trailers, the had trouble finding love.
So … so?
You’re right. There's nothing unique them, only those things about them we wish to make unique, wish to distinguish and judge.
Love and marriage and dinner plans and big, loud dogs. That's it.
Oh, yeah ... they're lesbians. All four couples.
Nothing special about that.
Nothing at all.