My hand trembled as I picked the phone up. I asked the operator to connect me to a Michigan number, all the while wondering if I’d be able to talk, or if she’d even remember my voice.

She did answer, and she sounded almost the same. I was instantly transported back forty years. I told her who it was, and when she queried where I was I told her I was calling from Jersey, but was heading up to Michigan and would love to meet her for coffee.

We spoke for twenty more minutes, touched a few memories, shared pieces of our current lives, marriages and families, and the whole time I kept thinking back to the days of the past.

A solid item in college, together for three years, we were never unhappy. Romantic times, poetic times, times when nobody else existed. We lived for the moment, typical of my impulsiveness, much like my ringing her now. I had loved her deeply, and the phone call confirmed I still did.

Afterwards, I sat quietly and recalled nights she held me close and I shuddered like a young child…