The Book of Riker's Point
an excerpt

Anne checked the scrap of paper one more time, to confirm again the flight number and time of arrival, which so far showed no delays. Her best friend Leaf was coming into town, and she had begged use of Liam's car to pick her up. He had relented, but had admonished her to take care of it. "I would be going with you, and driving it myself," he said, "but I have that bachelor's party to go to at my neighbor's." Anne had promised to take extra special care of it, and had finally had to punch Liam in the arm so he would let her go. He had waved morosely as she drove his baby away, but Anne knew it was all (mostly) an act. Now she was waiting patiently (well, not so patiently) for Leaf's plane to get in.
She pulled out a book and began to read. There were still a few minutes left before the flight got in, and it took forever for passangers to get from the plane to the terminal. The book was Captain's Corageous, by Rudyard Kipling, and reading it, Anne always felt that she had a taste of what it was like to be a little boy, developing into a man. It was so straightforward, so much more clear cut than the world's conception of a man today. Back then, even just a hundred years ago, a man was someone who took responsibility, who worked hard, and who found a place in society and did all he could there to further his civilization to a greater end. These days, manliness had more to do with not crying, apparently, and being buff and violent and disgustingly sexual. Anne wondered where exactly the change had taken place. The modernists had began to tear down the rules of literature, but it wasn't until the nineteen sixties that society began to do the same. Her mother often talked about the great change she had seen, after growing up in nineteen fifties America to being a young adult in the nineteen sixties. She emphasized the total about face, from conformity to complete lack of rules; from discipline to free love, from families to communes. Anne's mother had been a hippie in dress, and somewhat in ideals, "But mostly," she had confided to Anne when Anne was no longer a child, "I just liked the idea of doing drugs and not getting in trouble for it." Anne had found it hard to wrap her mind around this, for up until then her mother had been extremely anti- drug. She had always preached against them, and had punished Anne's brother severely for pretending to smoke a cigarette once. The revelation that her mother had done hard drugs for a number of years in her young adulthood had made Anne a little discomfited, but she supposed that knowing how harmful LSD can be made one that much more vehement against it.
She turned a page in her book, and then was thrown into much confusion as skinny arms suddenly wrapped around her from behind and a high pitched voice screamed, "Anne! Anne girl! Oh, it's so good to see you!"
Anne turned around, with difficulty, and saw Leaf embracing her from behind. There were two high pitched voices then as the two women rejoiced at seeing one another again.
"Oh, Anne why did you have to move so far away?" leaf lamented as they walked out to Liam's car.
"I just couldn't face anyone back in Georgetown," Anne said. "Besides, this gives you an excuse to come out to portland and see the wackos here."
"They aren't wacky," leaf said, pretending to be offended. She had grown up in portland before her paretns had moved to Georgetown. "They're unique."
Anne laughed. "same thing."
Leaf cocked her head at Anne.
"You said 'back in Georgetown,'" she remarked, "not 'back home'."
That sobered Anne. She still thought of Georgetown as her home... sort of. But Riker's point was growing to be much more present in her mind, and she supposed that if she stayed here much longer she would start calling it home.
"Yeah," she said vaguely, still thinking.
"It's okay," Leaf said, rubbing Anne's arm comfortingly. "It's hard to call a place home where so much bad stuff happened. But I hope you won't forget about me?"
"Forget you?" Anne exclaimed. "How could I forget you? You're my best friend, Leaf. If you stay in Georgetown, a part of it will always be home."
"But only my part of it?" Leaf asked, and Anne could not tell what hopes Leaf had contained in that question. She answered truthfully.
"yes. Too many people turned against me, and too much crap happened for me to ever be home there again." The realization that home was not what it had been hit Anne so suddenly that tears began pouring down her cheeks. "I'm an exile!" she wailed, and Leaf put her arms around her and made shushing noises. They stood like that for a few minutes, until Anne regained her composure.
"Sorry about that," she said, sniffling. Leaf took a handkerchief out of her pocket.
"No biggie," she said, handing it to Anne, who wiped her eyes and blew her nose. "You can keep that, by the way. For one thing, handkerchiefs full of bogies are gross, and for another, it was going to be a present."
Anne looked at the now soggy handkerchief and saw beautiful embroidery in bright colors all around the edge. In fancy script in one corner were the initials, A.F.
"That's beautiful, Leaf," Anne said. "Where did you get it?"
Leaf grinned. "I made it."
Anne gasped. Suddenly the work seemed so much more fine and detailed. "You made that? When did you learn to do that?"
"Well, I had to do something with my time without you there." Anne looked into Leaf's eye appreciatively and sympathetically, and they women embraced. They began walking again. "besides, I teach the young girls in my church, and we decided we wanted to do some kind of project, learn a skill or something. So we chose embroidery."
"Emroidery... in church..." Anne sounded skeptical. "Sounds..."
"Kind of lame, I know," Leaf said laughing, as they found the car and climbed in. "But it was more fun than it sounds. We ended up talking more than we embroidered, really, but I wanted to finish at least one so I could have something to show for myself when I saw you."
"Leaf, have I ever told you how amazing you are?" Anne said, starting the car.
"Not often enough," Leaf said mischeviously, and laughed her free laugh as they drove out of the parking garage and into Portland.