i have had a few dear friends when i was a young woman back in the old country. they were more like intellectual friends. one such friend was kazuko, whose mother was a filipina mestiza (filipino and spanish) and her father was japanese. she called herself evelyn at school.
i met her when i was in university, we attended almost the same subjects in night school. i almost always came to school early because i had special dispensation from work due to my scholarship; she was almost always late. one night, ten minutes into our auditing 1 lecture, i saw her park her car outside the window of the classroom. i knew the guard would not let her in the building - one, because she was already late for that period, and two, because i knew she'd be wearing a tight mini skirt based on the revealing low cut of her blouse. she had written in her notebook, in big letters so i could see it from where i sat, that she forgot to bring a long skirt, next page, she would bribe the guard with 50 pesos to let her in, could i open the door of the classroom so she could sneak in. i nodded in agreement because at that time the professor had given us a problem and we were to work in groups of five. i had my usual group of three and myself so i was short one body. because i sat at the back and i was usually the leader, the three groupmates came to sit with me.
i saw evelyn in my peripheral vision as we did our calculations - her 50 pesos indeed got her in and she waited for my signal to enter the classroom. boy! my three groupmates, all boys, were drooling looking outside the door at evelyn. when the professor asked for the door to be closed, i excused myself to go to the bathroom.
when i was ready to go back in, i realized that the challenge was how to get her in. i meant for her to stoop low and that was the challenge. you see, evelyn was about 5'9" and my slightly 5' would hardly cover her. plus we had to enter when the prof wasn't looking our way. the three boys in my group naturally were willing to help. rolando was our best shot because being a basketball player he was as tall as evelyn and big boned. when i came in, rolando stood up and pretended to pull the chair for me while one of the other two boys went to the professor at the pretext of clarifying something. evelyn then had to sit with us and when the group session was over, she volunteered to do the oral report. the professor raised his brows and asked her when she came in because she didn't answer the roll call. she said she had been there all the time and she probably just didn't hear her name being called. the professor looked at the three boys who looked at me as i pretended to check our report. acting unperturbed, i looked at the professor straight in the eye and told him that she's been sitting there at the back all the while. luckily, no one else in the class protested.
after our last class that evening, we rode in evelyn's white mustang to the nearby brown derby restaurant where we laughed at the first of our many shenanigans at school. the boys who had a crush on her enjoyed being part of that little game.
recently i found a mutual friend on facebook and asked about kazuko/evelyn. it confirmed my old information that she had married an american then lived in europe for many years. sadly she passed away ten years ago but in her last years, she had also sought me out wondering what had happened to me.
well, my friend, i'm still here, remembering our good old days in college, especially that one time you came to class wearing your geisha get up, which, my 365 friends, will be told sometime in the near future!
-o0o-
this is a composite of two photographs, for the current technique challenge.
Beautiful photo, but I wanted to mention something else - could you be able to post a discussion thread with the reminder and updates for the 52-week challenge? I am a bit overloaded here with the move things and I don't think I will be able to. But I think it might be overdue by now. Either way, thanks!
I know first hand what an awesome friend you are, so I don't have to gush about that here! Love this shot and the high key seems quite appropriate for remember a "high-key" adventure (sort of!).
shame about your friend