Years ago, in high school, my best friend told me she was marrying her boyfriend. I thought she was crazy, until I found out she was pregnant, and then I thought she was even crazier. She told me everything would turn out great, and that they were going to rent an apartment and have a happy little life together. Everything about her changed more than I’d ever expected. She’d always had these big dreams of going to college, getting the job she loved, falling in love, traveling, and everything she could ever imagine. I wondered what ever happened to them after graduation. That was the last place I saw her. Fifteen years of friendship just seemed to disappear into nothing, which made me question how real our friendship had ever really been. I heard she had a little girl, and named her Nicole after me, and two years later they had a little boy. I wondered if they looked like her, or more like Aaron. Aaron wasn’t a bad looking guy, and Katie was beautiful, so I guessed they must have been cute kids.
It was probably around 12 years since I’d seen her last when Katie called me. It was Saturday and I was sleeping in late. “Hello?” I’d mumbled into the phone, sort of irritated that anyone dared to wake me up.
“Nicole?”
“Yes?” I asked.
I could hear the smile in her voice, “Its Katie.”
Which Katie? I thought. I live in New York City, and I meet a million people every day, and it’s not like Katie is exactly a rare name.
I realized I’d been silent for an uncomfortable amount of time, “Um...I’m sorry, which Katie is this?”

“Katie Johnson,” she answered, still being just as friendly, “from high school.”
Katie Johnson from high school? Was that all she was? Just an old friend from high school?

“Katie? I haven’t talked to you in years, is everything okay?” I sat up in my bed.

“Things are going alright. I’m in New York. Well, actually, I have a job interview in New York,” she paused, “and…I was wondering, if maybe, you’d like to go have lunch sometime?”
It took me completely off guard. I was still groggy from being asleep, and I was almost positive I was actually dreaming.

“Sure,” I said anyway, “when?”

“Are you free today?”
I dangled my feet off the edge of my bed, “Yeah, I am. Where at and what time?”

“Well, I was hoping you might know a good place to go.”

“There’s a good café a couple blocks from my apartment,” I said as a stretched.

“Alright, where should I meet you?”
I had to think about that for a minute. Trying to get a tourist to navigate this city wasn’t always easy.

“Um…do you know how to get to Central Park?” I asked.

She said she knew, and I told her to meet me there because it was just a few blocks from where I lived. We decided on eleven o’clock and I said I would see her there. We said our goodbyes and I tossed my phone onto my bed, and tried to figure out what had just happened. I started a pot of coffee in the kitchen, with the few crumbs of coffee grounds left in the container. I turned the shower on in my bathroom. After about an hour, I was ready, and I still had around forty five minutes to spare. I decided since my coffee attempt had tasted like something out of the sewer, and quite frankly looked like something from it, too, that I would go down to the corner coffee shop and get myself something. I grabbed my purse, and my phone, slipped my flip-flops on, and locked the door behind me.

At 11 o’clock, I was sitting on a bench in the middle of Central Park. It was a beautiful day, and I was enjoying soaking up the sun.

“Nicole?” I heard someone say behind me.
I turned and saw a skinny brunette woman with a child on either side of her.

“Kate?” I asked, although I was sure it was her.

“I can’t believe it’s you,” she said and hugged me as I stood up.

“Me either,” I told her, still too shocked to say a lot more.
She pulled away and turned to the kids that were still a step behind her. “These are my kids. This is Nicole,” she paused, and looked me in the eyes, as if to insure me that she named her after me, “and this is Tyler.” She put a hand on the little blond boy’s head.


That was the only time I ever met Tyler. I never saw him again after that day, but he stuck in my head for the rest of my life. I still find myself wondering where he and his family are now.