Holey Wedding Announcement, Batman!

When I was in high school I had this friend, who wasn't all that good of a friend, after all. My senior year I finally discovered what kind of girl she really was. It was a sad time in my life, but I was so grateful when I went off to university and didn't have to worry about dealing with her drama (read: crap). A year later she came here too. Fortunately, there campus is large enough that I seldom ran into her. When I was fortunate enough to do so we both put on the oh-my-heck!-I-haven't-seen-you-in-ages,-how-the-heck-have-you-been? face. We then both felt the need to spend an hour or two catching up, only to eventually be relieved of the duty of maintaining the façade, and moving back into normal life.

Two years ago she got married. I know this because she felt the need to send me a wedding announcement. Dutifully, I pinned said announcement to my push-board, intent on sending her a card or something meaningless, but still acknowledging the wedding. Perhaps not unintentionally the pushpin ended up in the middle of her face.

Now, two years, and one kid, later the announcement is still on my push-board, awaiting the day I send a card, so that I can remove it with satisfaction of fulfilling the duty that has become the remnants of our friendship. Over the years the announcement has fallen (and been knocked) off the board countless times. Each time the pushpin inadvertently ends up in the middle of one of the three or four smiling images of her blazed across the front of the announcement. Each time the pushpin also, miraculously, misses the (satisfactorily) unattractive face of her unsuspecting (now) husband.

What I never counted on was a mutual friend (who has remained friends with both of us throughout the whole ordeal, as I never felt it was my place to tell her the gory details of the disintegration of our friendship, and I assume the other party in question didn't either) moving into my neighborhood. Correction, moving in two houses down. I also didn't ever anticipate her dropping in for a visit and discovering the impelled images of the other girl smiling back at her. Nor did I ever suspect that she would comment on the holes. She did. I casually mentioned that it had fallen a lot, and we must have absent-mindedly stuck the pins in, not paying attention to where the landed. I wonder if news of her disfigured face ever made it back to my former friend. Part of me hopes she knows. The other part doesn’t care one way or the other. Not that it matters anyway. I still have the announcement on my corkboard, and the pushpin is still holding it up, via her face.