The Day I Met Sally

Sally was always helpful and bright. One day Sally asked me if I would like a drink of her Red Bull Sports Drink. I turned it down as politely as I could without offending her sensitive wits. She shrugged and walked away to the next unsuspecting victim. We were enemies from then on. She never offered me a drink again, and I new that I would never make amends. Somethings are just not meant to be. That was Sally and me.

The Thursday after I met her, I went to the playground to make new friends. There was Sally again. She was offering a stick of chewing gum to a young Indian boy named Malik. The boy was polite, but again, he sensed an urgency to refuse the gum and move on to the swing set across the playground. Sally looked bewildered. I could tell that he was not the first victim of her kindness that day. I watched as she walked away to a tree with low, spreading branches. Before I knew what I was doing, I called out, "Hey, Sally!" She must not have heard me because she continued to make her way towards the tree. I broke into a jog and came upon her just as she reached the edges of the tree.

She whipped around with a snarl on her face. "What do you want?" she sneered. "I don't have anything to offer." For the first time, I really noticed Sally's eyes. They were bright green with little flecks of orange, the most peculiar pattern I had ever seen. I was really intrigued. I had never been able to look past the gnarled patterns of scar tissue on her young face. "I just wanted to see..." I stopped. I had never really viewed Sally as a friend before, but today, I could see loneliness in those flecks of orange in her big green eyes. "I just wanted to see if you would like to have half of my sandwich." I held it out to her and waited while she looked back and forth between my sandwich and my face. Suddenly, her eyes grew cold, and she lifted her hand in the air over her head. I winced and waited for the blow, but none came. When I opened my eyes, Sally was gone, her tree dancing in the breeze.

I never saw Sally again.