Gait of Comfort

Her sister was waiting for her in front of the newly built, trendy bureaucrat style of a shiny glass building. She had left her phone at home that day so she couldn’t call her from outside the building to tell her when she arrived. Instead she called her from her office and they timed it at exactly a 10 minute walk from one office to the other. Her seemingly older, younger sister was dressed in lawyerly black pants, a white button down and some stylish jewelry. She was in barely-ironed white with Spanish sandals.

They started to walk in an unknown direction. Her sister took off the sweater that warmed her in the over air-conditioned offices of the massive law firm. They started the mid-afternoon news catch up. It went in no particular order. The first topic could be the work day, something which they both viewed with little emotion and more resignation. Work was a necessary, at times amusingly childish, evil. Despite their vastly different work, they had both realized early that their identities were barely, if at all, attached to their careers.

They passed Starbuks and moved on to the daily communications from the outside; friends, family, suitors, exes. Their conversations were exceptionally efficient. Somehow it took a sentence or two for them to describe even the most emotional exchange. “He said he misses me, wishes I was around him.”
“Yea, I bet he does. What are you going to do?”
“Just wait and see how I feel later and write him back, probably along the lines of ‘why don’t you do something about it?’”

“Sounds good. Have you talked to mom?” Her sister's small torso and long legs contrasted her longer torso. Their little arms and faces were similar, at times, superficially identical. Their gait was easy, their rhythm intuitive.

“No I keep forgetting to call her. I feel bad, I just get into my own world and fall asleep and wake up realizing I forgot to call her again. Have you talked to her?”

“Yea, she is fine, but we need to buy our plane tickets soon. She had a party this weekend and she was really excited about it. All the ladies came.”

“What about the family, what is going on with the Farhad and Pooyan?”

“I don’t know, mom and Khaleh are talking about the baby shower. Farhad made his move back to Nashville, and Susan and Arya are moving into their place.”

“I am going to call mom when I get to the office.”

“She is in a funk today; I don’t know what is going on.”

By now they had turn two of the four corners of their walk. They were heading back, the 15
minutes was coming to an end. “Yea I think she just needs some daughter intervention. Her mind is probably getting polluted with all the designer purses her friends carry.”

“Yea call her and see what’s up. She was getting on my nerves.”

“Wait do you want some food?”

“Yea can we get some lemonade? I think the sugar will be just right today.”

“I don’t want some, it has been off for me lately. I think it’s too sweet but you can get some.” They walked into the overpriced sandwich shop and picked up some strawberry lemonade. As they walked out of the store she handed the cup to her sister. They started towards the last corner. “Yea its too tart sweet or something.” She tried it.

“Mmmmm..Oh its perfect for me today, I need the sugar.”

"Hows your stomach?"

"I am still constipated. I can even eat anymore because my stomach is so full. What about you?"

"Its fine but I keep getting nauseated. I don't know what it is."

"Are you stressed? Maybe it was that thing at work. You were fine this weekend."

"No, everything is fine. It could be..." They talked about all the events that could cause the nausea, including meals out and family conflict. Nothing seemed to present itself as a candidate. They moved on. In a few days the issue would make itself known.

They slowed their walk and stood in front of the gargantuan piece of real estate again, their words began their conclusion. “What are you and the hubby up to tonight?”

“Nothing, what are you doing?”

“Probably meeting up with the girls for an hour or so at Basil.”

“Ok, so I’ll talk to you later?”

“Yep. Have fun in the cave.” She squeezed her little sister's stomach as they hugged good bye.

“Thanks enjoy this weather walking back.”

“Yup.”