the crescent moon was hanging low on the horizon as i drove home from starbucks tonight. we met at the one “way out” in pineville, next to catholic high school, as it is a more central location for the combination of cayce and dave coming from their house in indian trail, jes and don coming from her parents’ new house across the border in south carolina, and me coming from the gang’s old myers park and dilworth haunts.
i drove out the direct route, park road to pineville-matthews. i drove back home by a different route, winding my way through dark streets that i used to know well, but now look a little off. i passed the mall, my high school, the pool where we used to pass the summers. i can’t believe i have only two more days left in charlotte before i go to atlanta, and then back to houston. being home has been absolutely wonderful, but also, as i realized tonight, a bit surreal.
i am starting to forget some of the “back routes” to certain places, and have to ask mom to remind me of directions; though i still know my way around, the exact intersections and turns feel a little less sure. i forget the names of roads. new buildings are going up all the time, new stores, new houses. there is a monstrosity of a mansion going up on the corner of princeton and queens road, a 17,000 square foot house that takes up every spare inch of the lot. mom and i walked through it on our christmas day walk. it’s only been framed on the inside, and there are so many rooms that we couldn’t even figure out what they are all for. it’s far too big a house for the neighborhood, and stands out in a garish way, and yet the thing that distresses me most is that there is no yard. when did people stop wanting yards?
my neighborhood in charlotte is so different from clear lake and league city, where becca and others have their houses. i never realized how much i took cumberland avenue for granted. the hilly streets, the cute houses, the old trees, the park as a backyard. by comparison, the neighborhoods in houston feel so cookie-cutter and sterile. growing up with two parents and four kids in one 1900 square foot house made our home permanently loud and a bit chaotic and cramped, but these days it feels cozy and warm.
i thought about all this as i was driving home on streets that felt a little bit strange, after coffee with friends that i don’t keep up with as well as i should. but it’s ok.
it’s true that i can never remember exactly what cayce, jes, or their spouses are doing, but that doesn’t mean they don’t still make me laugh as hard as they did in high school. and though the streets make me feel a little off-kilter, i can still find my way home.
