#6: Together Seven Years Apart

Memoir - Week 6 

By now King O’s had swelled to a throng. Nothing like a healthy throng to whip up some buzz in the atmosphere. It also meant Erin and I had to stand increasingly closer to each other, as if the excitement was fusing us together under the spell of inevitability.

“So, are all of you girls studying the same thing?”

“No, it’s a mix. I’m doing a semester here for my Bachelor of Arts in Integrative Studies” answered Erin with a smile.

“Oh, yeah - what’s integrative studies?”

Her big blue eyes moved sideways in a cute way, her head obliquely tilted with the quick rising of her shoulders, and a little grin formed on her juicy lips. She had answered this question many times before, and it took some explaining I could see.

“Well, basically, it’s taking…integrating…different ideas and perspectives and using that in what you’re studying. My focus is on health education and I’m really interested in HIV AIDS prevention. So, you’re looking at that with the biological, economic or social aspects – things like that, you know, it’s not one thing  -

“Oh yeah. I see”

“ - yeah. Not just one aspect – dya you see what I’m saying?”

“Yeah, that’s interesting”

“Did you study?” she asked.

“Yeah, I finished in 1999 – I did languages and applied linguistics. In Brisbane.”

“Oh, wow. So, you’re a cunning linguist!” She shot this back. Her eyes delivered it.

‘Yes. I am” My eyes also did the talking. We were in the bedroom now.