Vagabond Multilingual Journal Spring 2014 | Page 31

The next two weeks, the same group came again. This time, Rose who was with a
girlfriend. She scanned the crowd for my face. They found me for a friendly hug.

“This is my friend, Joe...”
Our eyes met, each of us wondering what we would discover in the other, friend or foe,
supporter or opponent.

“Hi, how are you?” the other girl greeted.

“I’m fine.”
Rose sat next to me. Like a sequence of a dream, I was caught entangled in the why and
how. Why was she nice to me?
I was a moral orphan, she was a student from a private college. Rose and I had
different friends. Little by little, I became her friend and a part of her friends. I am going
back to school, Rose...I started to think.
A year after I met Rose, I taught myself English. With English as a second language,
I successfully took the S.A.T test at Princeton University, in New Jersey. I enrolled at
Wilson College, to major in computer of information systems.
Leaping from the old into the new life, connecting the dream to my heart, I wanted to
have the best grades, the best education, even to attend the best graduate schools.
I’m grateful for my friendship with Rose. She found me. Friendships, relationships
and loves are a part of life. Some become ghosts. They are the ones who hunt us; the ones who
leaves us behind on a heap, lamenting what is lost; some whispering and telling us to go on.

by Chris B. Missett

painting by David Russell

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