Our Story

Posted October 31st, 2008 by Jeremy Hutton

Jeremy:

I remember first meeting Joy in high school while back stage in the costume room. There were racks and racks of custumes everwhere. She was an actress on stage and i was backstage manager at the time – it was one of those awkward times after the performance where the two of us where just standing there. You really have nothing else to do – it’s either stand there being awkward or stike up a conversation.

Through the years we’ve kept in touch as we went off to college (for Joy colleges, plural – , traveled Europe, and moved out. It wasn’t until my senior year in college that i really began to start thinking more and more about Joy – wondering where she was, what she was up to, how she was doing. It was truly plaguing me to talk to her, see her, hang out with her. We’d always kept in touch, but this time something else was spinning. It was like my heart was calling me to look deeper.

Could she be the one? To even think it was scary, especially since I hadn’t seen her for months. But the question (and my curiosity) kept lingering. It was funny really, one side was like – this is Joy, you’ve known her so long. While the other side was like – this is Joy, there’s something different about the two of you now. Don’t you want to find out? I did, so i decided to look her up.

Joy:

I remember I was on my way down to the anti-deforestation or some-such-named building in the backmost regions of U-Dub., passing by the fountain before the wooded area overtook its better-known manicured greens. As the walking path split into two, I checked my phone and saw I had a message. I remember it because I saved it that day, and every twenty-one days thereafter until I got my next cell phone….

It was Jeremy. “Just calling to say hi and see what’s up (of course, this is not verbatim. Or is it?) and actually, I was just kind of wondering what you’re into lately. Like, it would be great to know what your favorite song is right now (his voice is more of an excited ramble than a deliberate interrogation) because my favorite right now is ‘Audience of One’ (slight panting between sentence fragments) and, honestly, I ’d like to know other things too, like what book you’re reading….” You get the point. I laughed my way into Medieval Literature that day.

I wish it was more like a giggle. Or a coo. Looking back, even a heart-felt, satisfied groan would have been fitting. Here he was. Could it be that that this man, after all this time, was calling? And I mean, calling. The path at the edge of the well-kept greens split in two. At the time, just a little tingle, a tightening of the chest, or maybe nothing but a caught breath held the thought, leaf-like, paper-thin. We had been friends forever – why in the world would anything change now?

A month or so later, I’d already saved his message twice more and it occurred to me that I hadn’t had to call him in quite some time. ‘Audience of One’ was now overplayed, I was twenty books down-the-hatch, buried under three upper-level English classes, and we were speaking much more, recently, than… well, let’s just say, the man was calling.