Boy-trouble

My bestfriend is having boy-trouble, a common malaise in the world of women who do men. She is one of those buttered-up children who got hugged too often, whose parents' shielded from life's dreary realities. I met her in boarding school, where she was given restraining order from everything: bullies, fetching water, running errands for seniors, corporal punishments and labour days.

The object of her pain, the boy she has been seeing for six months, had never won my approval. I felt he carried himself too importantly; his I-know-who-I-am-ness was just too much for me to endure. When they had their first quarrel, she ran to me hoping I would offer her tricks of propitiation to win back his heart. I declined and gave a piece of my mind concerning him. When they got back together, she would not speak to me for weeks.

Now she lay with her head pillowed on my laps, getting ready to dig another artesian well of tears. The bone of contention between the used-to-be lovers was another girl. It appeared her boyfriend use to have a crush on the new girl long ago and could not afford to miss the chance when she started flirting with him.

'Love is such a bottomless pit.' She sobbed.

'Oh stop crying,' I said, rubbing her back. 'You would land safely.'

'A good man is hard to find.'

'Yes,' I agreed. "Needle in haysack.' 

'You know, I was thinking he was last my last bus stop. We had a lot in common.'

'No, I don't agree with you. You two were not enrolled in the same school of thought. He was just too....I don't know how to explain it to you. He was not right for you. Believe me.'

She blew a trumpet of phlegm into her hanky.

 'What about you? You have been single for so long.'

'I am leaving my grounds fallow for now. The farmers in the past have not been so tender.'

She chuckled. 'Bad farming practises. No mulching, too much fertilizer, bush burning.'

'And what's worst,' I said. 'They only plant annual and biennial crops. Where are those farmers bearing perennial seeds? I am tired of the bland routine of meet-date-love-break-up. I'm just tired.'

'Oh love is such a bottomless pit.' She began weeping again.

'Please stop crying, will you? One day, I promise you, we will land safely.'