the friendly familiar voice of my

best friend

my mom figured it was my aunt

I go inform her that it’s Jimmy

my dad hears and automatically screams

“Dinner!”

It’s an inside joke

it seems every time he would call

it would be time to eat

so now it’s just a natural

saying we’re all used to

it’s 9:30 P.M.

we talk about

schoolhomeworkfriendsbandfamiliesmusic

anything we can think of off hand

anything that’s even remotely random and unexpected

that’s part of the rules

the more random

the better

we’re both storytellers

we laugh at each other’s lives

like that one time he set his trash can on fire

or that one time I drove over the dead road kill

on purpose

it’s 10:45 P.M.

my phone dies

I have to call him back on the other cordless phone

we pick up right where we left off

as always

it’s a fairly regular thing

these phone conversations

we tell each other anything and everything

and we always listen

listening is one of the most important things in a relationship of any sort

for the next hour the

laughing is endless

there is no such thing as

awkward silence with

us in fact that

might be too hard

it’s 11:54 P.M.

maybe I should hang up

sleep may do me some good

I tell him

but neither one of us

wants to say

goodbye

or be the first

to hang up

we enjoy each others

company

that much

we keep talking

rambling on

wanting it to never end

wanting to freeze time for just

that moment

but finally, I say goodnight

and hang up with the sound of a click

it’s 12:16 A.M.