We agreed to let Maxine go with close friends of ours to Bethany this weekend to celebrate their daughter’s 13th birthday. They’ve been very careful throughout the pandemic, as have we, and when they asked how we felt about her joining them for a long weekend, we thought it over and decided to let her go.
This is her BFF, and they’ve been so good throughout everything. They’ve had sleepovers in separate tents in the backyard, rang in the new year together in an open garage, taken bike rides together around town, and have logged probably about a hundred hours of FaceTime since this all began.
I dropped her off at their house this afternoon and chatted a bit before saying goodbye to her. She gave me an extra long hug and said she’d call me every day. The girls looked at the dad and at me and asked, “So, we can just go inside together?” We both nodded.
They looked mildly stunned, hesitant, and a bit like they had just won the lottery as they slowly stepped into the house. I assume it took them only a few minutes to fall back into the rhythm they’d had from when they were toddlers up until last March.
Yup, shields are down for now. For good? Probably not, but for now, they have this time together.
My Corner of the Village 