The Deepest Bonds Transcend Space and Time

Weeks of anticipation left me too excited to sleep properly Thursday night. It was only a matter of hours until Luneray would finally be here. We hadn’t seen each other since she waved goodbye to me from a train station platform in Stockholm, tears in both of our eyes.

There are just some things in life that are right. Cities that feel like home when you step off the plane. Jobs that you seem to be able to perform intuitively. Our random assignment to share an apartment in Uppsala was one of those things. In the space of a few short weeks, Luneray became one of my closest friends. We spent night after night sitting in the kitchen of our apartment talking about everything and laughing ourselves silly, lulled by the midnight sun into a place where time seemed to stop and it was eternally 8 p.m., the day’s work done, a cup of hot tea on the table, relaxed and content in the warmth of the slanting sunlight. On several nights, the only thing that seemed to stop us from staying up all night was the sudden realization that, even though the sun hadn’t set, it was well past midnight.

Since leaving Sweden, we’ve been in constant touch via email and IM. She’s been there for me through this whole difficult summer and fall. I was dying to see her in person again. Professor Cameron earned my ire by rescheduling a cancelled class for the morning that I was supposed to pick her up from the airport. I had to show up for it, thanks to the wonderful law school attendance policy, but planned to stay only long enough to sign the attendance sheet or until half-way through class, whichever came last, and I got antsier and antsier as the minutes ticked by with no sign of the attendance sheet. Finally, I asked the girl next to me to sign my name if he remembered or was reminded of it (since Kim is in that class) at the last minute, and flew out the door.

The moment that I finally saw her coming toward me was... well, I cried. I’m sure I babbled like a madwoman the first twenty minutes or so. And as we drove to my apartment together, it just seemed right that she was there with me. We knitted and talked and went to the museum and ate and I introduced her to my friends and my cat loved her (more than me, apparently, since she came to Luneray when called and ignored me almost entirely) and oh, this visit was far too short and she lives far too far away.

I miss her already.