I have the privilege of having a cousin only months apart from me; however, I wish that I had the privilege of living close to her.
She was born in March and I was born in June but we were raised together in the same house. We talked together, we told secrets together, we shared toys together, and we even had our own walker that we would race down the pavement. We were cousins that spent every minute together. She went by the nickname of Gaga and I went by the nickname of Sasa. The years went by but we still stuck together. We would walk down the street pretending to be brother and sister or even twins sometimes.
I was always with her; she was always with me which is why I was shocked when I found out that she was to move to Arizona. Could it be to move to a sunnier place? No, of course not, there was plenty of sun in California. Could it be that she didn’t want to be so close to me? That’s what I thought.
It turns out that it had nothing to do with me and that is was simply a question of what was best for her mother’s job. I tried to cope with it. For now, it would be easy; she still had some time before leaving. I spent as much time as I could with her, enjoying every minute.
The months went by quickly and it soon became her time of her departure. She left and I didn’t resist. I didn’t hold her back. I didn’t even cry. I was just quiet, in order to keep the best memory of her as possible. I pictured her in my mind and tried to keep that image. I wanted to remember how she looked, how she talked, how she smelled so that I could have a piece of her. That’s all I wanted; a piece of her.
She left and I watched the car pull away. The car became smaller and then it turned right and disappeared. I sighed – but not a sigh of relief – the “oh what am I going to do when I’m so lonely” kind of sigh. So my mom took hold of my two shoulders and told me something that not even now I cannot remember. She told me something reassuring and that’s all that matters. It was something about that I would see her again soon, in just one month.
One month. I had never been away from her for that long. I did not want to wait one month. But somehow it reassured me that I would see her once a month. That was the deal, once a month, she would visit for the weekend - that’s two days. Not to mention that she has to also visit her dad during those two days since he stayed in California.
That one month went by. I tried to distract myself. I didn’t worry about the fact that she was gone. Instead, I thought about the reward of seeing her at the end of that month. How she would exit the airport and see me waiting for her, right in front of the line, to make sure that I would see her right away.
And she came. And I was waiting. We spent the time that we could together and enjoyed it. She told me all about her new home and what it was like in Arizona. She told me that she wished I could have moved with her to Arizona. We told each other secrets that we had obtained during that one month. It was a great weekend and on went the cycle.
She left, but in a month she returned. Occasionally, she would come for a week for vacation. I still saw her. The best part is, when she was in Arizona, she was still beside me.