See yourself in your mind's eye walking through the school gate; there far in the ground you spot your dear friend... a hint of smile touches your face and your footsteps quicken as you make your way through the jam-packed ground.
Childhood friendship was effortless, with no demands, no complaints. My first attempt at striking a friendly conversation with someone was a result of my kindergarten teacher's tries of making the "new girl" feel at home. She called twin brothers to shake hands with me and show me around the play ground. I followed them without a word; stunned by the fact that the two boys were incredible replicas of each other. We came to an abrupt stop. Out of the blue they jumped on each other and started a fierce fight. I shrieked with fright and they came to a halt. After a long moment of staring at the frightened girl they resumed their wrestling championship and I fled away from identical looking monsters. Although my first experience of making friends with someone was no less than terrible, I still made some amazing friends in no time.
I remember having a boy in spectacles as my good friend back in my first grade. We would make houses from our workbooks and put in little details like walls and doors made out of paper. We used to be so absorbed in our architectural masterpiece that soon the kids sitting around us would get bore. They would seek amusement in knocking our masterpiece down and their every try would make us roar louder than before. We finally found an alternative for the execution of our creative plans in the sandbox of our play ground. Those muddy hands and the sand castles, proud smiles on our faces and sadness of leaving it behind in the ground... All seem happenings of yesterday.
Then I moved back to my home city. At my new school I made two great friends. After a year one of them left school to hifz Quran. I did not know I won't meet her again otherwise I would have hugged her one more time and not complain about her bushy hair tickling my nose. The other one remained my only friend in a class of forty students. I remember saving a seat for her after the morning assembly; sharing our cold lunch; going on a war for each other; keeping secrets with a promise that it will go with me to the grave; coloring our class work with striking colors of yellow and orange; exchanging cards at the most not-at-all-special times to make them really special. After three years, I had to shift to another town. However, my dear friend didn't let the evil of distance come in our way. My cell phone constantly buzzes with her endless phone calls and messages.
In the new small town I made really good friends not in my school but rather in the small colony of sixteen houses where I got the privilege (yes, it was no less than a privilege) to reside for two years. The colors of summer would seep in through the large gate of our small gated community and we would play in the hot humid evenings. Then the winter would arrive, those closely huddled houses would provide us a cozy place to sit together and tell stories to each other. Whether it was the games we invented or the disgusting milkshake recipes we came up with, everything was crazy yet a lot of fun. We performed a complete play of Cinderella after countless rehearsals; planned a wedding of our dear doll; tried riding a bicycle thrice our size; sent a couple of motorcycles flat on the ground and then ran hard to save our lives from their not-so-kind owners; developed a mania for badminton; shared horror stories and then screamed with fear; ate tons of popcorn and sucked on trillions of ice lollies. The most bitter to digest was our parting. We gave each other handful of childish things as souvenirs and with teary eyes and rampant waving of our chubby hands we waved goodbye to each other.
Sometimes I still wish I could transform back to that old place where we can play hide and seek behind the cars or talk endlessly as we used to, walking hand in hand, stepping side by side, talking freely about our fears, feelings, expectations, daydreams and passions. Forgetting our everyday troubles and putting our back to the demanding future.