The Best of Friends

Jennifer huffed into the room indignantly. Doris grimaced inside as her friend of twenty years began talking.

‘You see, Doris, it’s been an awful day. It’s John, he wants to marry his latest squeeze, Christie.

Doris had seen this coming. Jennifer continued, without pausing to breathe.

‘She’s just not suitable for the family, she lives on that estate down the road.

Doris smiled to herself. Jennifer always forgot her past at these times. How she’d lived on that same estate before she met and married the lovely Gregory.

‘She works in a Salon, Doris, can you believe it?

It wasn’t a question that needed answering.

‘John deserves better, someone with good breeding, who knows her way around etiquette not the heads of elderly women’.

Jennifer stopped to breathe for a moment, leaving Doris with a small window, so she fired out a question.

‘Jennifer, are you and Gregory still happy?’

‘Well, Doris, that’s a silly question, of course we are, he’s the love of my life’

‘Then why can’t John and Christie be as happy as you?’

How often had Jennifer been reminded of her past by Doris? Secretly, it’s probably why she turned to her. She had a way of getting straight into the midst of her unsettled mind. Jennifer pondered these words, it was the first time the room had been quiet since she’d arrived. Doris waited, then Jennifer spoke quietly, ‘But what if she can’t cope with what’s expected of her?’

‘You said John loves her, then he’ll guide her, she’ll do fine, just as you did’.

A smile crept across Jennifer’s face, ‘thank you Doris, you really are the best of friends, excuse me I’ll be right back, John’s due back in ten minutes, there’s something I need to tell him’. With that she left.




Word Count 299