I didn’t realize how high up I was, until I looked into the distance, and saw the tall, high-rise buildings. The were staring me right in the eye, huge and domineering. The stars in the sky grew dimmer as the city lights grew brighter. The ocean roared and the moon hung low, suspended over black waters. Waters that looked deep, as if they might not have a bottom at all.

“When we travel the world,” I said to Jordan, “We have to go to Greece. I want to see the ocean from a hundred different places.”

“Egypt too,” she said, kicking her feet against the railings, “I wanna see the pyramids.”

I smiled because I’d heard this before. She mentioned Egypt almost every time we talked about our expeditions. Somehow, our dreams seemed more realistic when we were away from home- as if they were already set I motion, coming true, piece by piece. I heard laughter as a car sped by, yelling out to us. They must have thought we were crazy.

The crows nest, as we had deemed it, was the little deck perched on the roof of the house. A flat, surrounded by porch railings at the top of the worlds longest, steepest, set of stairs. Jordan and I liked to sit on the railings, dangling over the steep roof. It was a glorious danger, mostly because it wasn’t dangerous at all. From the ground, I imagined it looked pretty risky though. The wind tangled our hair and rustled the pages of an open notebook that I had tossed onto the table.

The light cast over the water was silver, shimmering and dancing on the waves. I closed my eyes and imagined my life, ten years from now. Things would be different by then Very different. Somehow, I knew one thing would be the same. Jordan and I would be far away from home, doing what we had always hoped to do. Seeing new things.

I swallowed the lump in my throat as I thought of the years to come, before we could take off. Those years would bring all kinds of new things. Most of all, distance. It was something we’d both dealt with before. Distance complicated things. Whether it was minutes, miles, or seas, it always played a contributing factor. It was something we’d have to overcome.

“Do you ever wonder?” I asked, “Like, about the future. About what might happen.” The question was broad but I didn’t have to explain myself. My best friend always understood no matter how inarticulate I was.

“Everyday,” She stated simply.

I whistled to a bird that hopped along the roof, accidentally scaring it away. “So, aren’t you worried? What if we lose touch? That’s going to change our whole lives.”

She took on her serious persona, which hardly ever showed itself and said, “No. We’ll never not be friends. No matter how far away. We’ve gone through too much together. It could never change. There‘s no forgetting this,” she gestured to the ocean, sprawled out before us.

I nodded, realizing she was right, but still not completely comforted, “What do you think that cloud looks like?” I said, pointing toward the sky.

She paused…

“A man wearing a gasmask,” she said.

I snorted and looked over at her, “Where do you come up with this stuff?”

She shrugged carelessly, “Wonder what the stars look like from the pyramids…”