Transplanted Life
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
 
Fancy meeting you here
The last Sox game of the season - or at least the last I had tickets to - was an ass-kicking, with rain on top. Those types of games are never much fun. It didn't help that getting to Fenway from North Waltham can be a bear on game days - transfer buses in Watertown, wait twenty minutes for a bus that's supposed to come every ten, and then grit your teeth as it stops at what seems like absolutely every corner on the way. I sweat, at one point I pondered getting off the bus to switch to the B line because it might be faster. Anyone familiar with the MBTA's Green Line may find that unlikely, but I swear...

So, that's how I wound up at Fenway half an hour late for the game, just in time to see the Twins start teeing off on Wakefield. Superstitious folks may choose to blame my arrival, but I wasn't exactly the only Sox fan on that bus, so they can stick it.

After a couple innings, not having eaten since noon had counteracted the damage the game was doing to my appetite, so I gave my boyfriend a kiss and headed down to the big concourse to find some eats. I wound up with a panini even though I usually stay pretty close to the basics at a ballgame (hot dogs, sodas, peanuts, ice cream bars). Shortest line, though.

Anyway, I had almost made it back to the ramp for my section, when I caught someone out of the corner of my eye. I must have annoyed a bunch of people, just stopping in the middle of the floor while I stared, trying to figure out where I knew her from before it hit me and I started walking over. "Sam? Samantha Haskins?"

I was too far away at first, but when I got over there, she looked up, especially when I started including her last name. Then she turned away from the girl was walking/talking with, saw me, and spread her arms for a hug. I didn't know that I exactly rated a hug from her, but she gave me one anyway. "Small town, isn't it? Wow, it's been almost two years!"

"I know... I almost didn't recognize you! Seriously, are you really you?"

"Believe it or not, I am, although I get why you ask the question. The red hair was her idea." She nods at the other girl, whose own hair is blue, then says realizes she's being a little rude. "Marti, this is Koni Momoa; she's my roommate at BU."

"You're here for college? That's... don't take this the wrong way, but I never thought of you as the college type."

"That's okay, I wasn't... But what happened to us... I tried to hook back up with my old friends, but they had a year of stuff, of life, that I had totally missed. There was only one girl who even asked me what had happened, and when I tried to explain the whole nanotechnology thing to her, I realized I didn't understand it, and it suddenly seemed really important that I understand it. So I started reading, told mom and dad I wanted to go back to school even though I had my GED because of Carter, and I wound up taking some summer classes and testing into a couple A.P. courses for my senior year... So here I am! I'm a year older than this kid and all my other classmates--" Koni stuck her tongue out; apparently this was already a running joke between them. "--but I'm majoring in biochemistry. Maybe I'll be able to help figure all this out after I graduate."

"Wow. That's awesome." Sam grinned sheepishly - I don't think I ever saw that expression on her face, not as Sam, Michelle, or Carter - and I looked over at Kon "So, how much of that made any sense?"

Koni says that Sam's life was obviously way weirder than the coma she mentioned, and Sam said she'd explain later. Koni nods, tells Sam she's going back with the other girls, leaving us to talk. She asks about Carter, I say he dumped my best friend. Wow, she says, and Koni's going to think her roommate's life was weird. She asks about Maureen, and I say that she and her family are more or less getting along now, but it's taking a while to get them on board with the idea of same-sex marriage. She asks if maybe I've heard about any progress from the FBI that she hasn't, but it looks like we're just as informed as each other.

There's not much more to say after that, and the game's supposed to be a thing for her to meet her dorm-mates anyway, so we go our separate ways after exchanging phone numbers and the like. I finally get back to Alex after missing two full innings. I tell him where I've been and who I met, saying it was weird to see her not wearing any black and just generally being cheerful. He chuckles, reminding me that it's probably a good thing.

I tell him I know, but I just think it's odd - that of the people I know who've been on this little swapping adventure, she's the one that's got her original body and mind in the same place, and yet in some ways, it's like she's changed the most.

Funny how that works sometimes.

-Marti

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Note: This blog is a work of fantasy; all characters are either ficticious or used ficticiously. The author may be contacted at JaySeaver@comcast.net