avatarElizabeth Emerald

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Abstract

te of our union was abysmal: bottomed out.</p><p id="b45b">The day the gel ran dry, I threw our baby out with the bathwater.</p><p id="1b9c">More on the sad demise of our friendship</p><div id="2597" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/boo-e38d60ad7a"> <div> <div> <h2>Boo!</h2> <div><h3>Ghosts of friendship past</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*5pGEJGUQHxf-NPsL)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="0717" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/once-upon-forever-f49cbd5750aa"> <div> <div> <h2>Once Upon Forever</h2> <div><h3>Journaling the journey’s end</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*lafc14GklUIm_KC1)"></div> </d

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Running on Empty

Drain dancing: death of a friendship

Photo by Curology on Unsplash

On my 55th birthday, my best-friend-forever gave me a huge bottle of Neutrogena bath gel. I estimated that the half-gallon of goo, doing daily duty, would last three years.

As to the bottle of liquid gold, I underestimated its life by two-thirds — I eked it out until I turned 60.

As to the friendship, I overestimated its life by forever.

It had ebbed and flowed — with increasingly more ebb and less flow — for much of those five years.

Just four months after my having received the gift that would keep on giving, Michael and I began our inexorable drain-circling dance. We would put a plug in now and then to stanch the outflux, to no avail. The state of our union was abysmal: bottomed out.

The day the gel ran dry, I threw our baby out with the bathwater.

More on the sad demise of our friendship

Nonfiction
Friendship
Breakups
Short Story
This Happened To Me
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