Chapter 14

I squeaked as we jumped. The sun broke through the clouds in that exact moment. Water rushed into my nose as we cut through the surface. “You okay, ladies?” The man, who still held Paula’s phone, glanced over the railing. Paula looked at me giggling. “Of course, we’re not made of sugar.” Luckily the current was not that strong despite the rain and we swam towards the shore. We were both covered in muddy water, running down our hair and face. Paula splattered a handful of brown liquid in my direction. “You got something on your face.” I rolled my eyes and took revenge. “Not that you look any different.” We laughed and for a moment I forgot that we wore dirty colorful clothes and that it was freezing cold and that probably everyone thought we were crazy. I just saw Paula’s muddy face, the sunlight breaking through the clouds, the rainbow straddling the sky. I smelled the rain, the water, the wet grass on the shore. I heard birds singing, footsteps splashing, us laughing. “You are crazy!”, the man said with a grin on his face. He brought my bag and our umbrellas to the riverside as we waded out of the water. “Is that a compliment?” Paula shook herself like a dog and droplets flew all around. He tilted his head from one side to the other, then shrugged. “See it as you want, but you definitely got guts.” The man left and we sat down on the wet grass. “That was pretty awesome”, Paula said, laying her head back. Then she grabbed her phone, removed the case and handed me a slip of paper. I wiped my hands on my trousers, but realized they were just as wet. The paper looked crumpled and I immediately recognized it. “It’s the bucket list!” She nodded. I carefully took it, trying to keep it as dry as possible. All the things were crossed out with a black pen, except for two. One said ‘Colorful clothes in the rain’, the other one made me blink at it a few times. “I don’t know when mom wrote that list. Probably a long, long time ago. Maybe she was as old as I am now and most likely lost it in her stuff. She was a pretty chaotic person.” I chuckled. Like mother, like daughter. I glanced at the list again. The last point said ‘Find a husband to do all the above with’. The word ‘husband’ was also crossed out but with a pink marker. “I’m happy she at least got to fulfill half of that one.” A genuine smile appeared on her lips. Something else was written next to that point with the same pink marker. “And I was finally able to complete everything.” My eyes rested on the paper. The pink letters said ‘best friend’.

I stared at the display of my laptop, my hand hovering over the mouse. An hour ago I had filled in all the data required for the application. The application for the poetry slam. Next to me lay that blurred, crumpled flyer and a whole bunch of notes for my text. An hour ago my hand had rested on the mouse, the cursor just above the ‘send’ button. Then I had shut the laptop, opened it again, scribbled some notes, moved the cursor around again until it rested on that same place. I squeaked and hid my face behind my hands. I was so glad nobody was home today. My phone beeped as a new message came in. Hey Marie, would you like to watch clouds with me on the pavement? A smile made its way to my lips. Then the mouse clicked. On my way.