Safe

Reverb11

Prompt for December 8: Safe: Where did you feel safest this year? Describe the person, place or thing that made you feel safe in 2011.

I am not a person who generally feels safe. I check under my car in parking garages and shine a light into my backseat when I enter my car after dark. I keep a baseball bat in the track of the sliding door in my bedroom. I am diligent about helmets and seat belts and respirators. I get nervous if strangers stand too close to me or make eye contact or follow me when I'm out alone.

Even more important to me is emotional safety. I protect my feelings and keep most of my thoughts and opinions to myself. I don't really confide. There is only one person who always makes me feel safe. When everything is pear shaped, she is the person I depend upon to take care of me. She's the only person I can be vulnerable with.

This is BestFriend:

(It was impossible for me to find a picture of just the two of us that wasn't at least two years old.)

BestFriend gets me in a way that I can't explain.

She's the only person who can convince me that its going to be okay. She has a tendency to call me out of nowhere on the days that I'm falling apart. She knows when I need her before I figure it out. She's unshakable in a crisis. She makes me laugh harder than anyone else.

She's my port in a storm.

So when everything is pear shaped, chances are you'll find me frowning and quiet on the sofa at her house. We'll be drinking wine and eating carbs and watching Say Yes to the Dress, mocking tacky brides and planning her wedding to ManFriend. And when ManFriend comes home from work or the golf course, we'll change the channel and start cooking. I'll pour more wine, ManFriend will talk about his day and BestFriend will invariably burn herself. They'll make me laugh and the last of my melancholy will melt away. Later, I'll climb in my car and head home, steady after spending a few hours in safety.