It creeps up on you.

...an excerpt from this weekend's writing...

Funny thing about wisdom, it creeps up on you. Just when you think you've thought all you can about something, that's when wisdom is borne. Wisdom is a magic trick whose secret is never revealed until everything you think you knew about magic is obliterated.

He called, another time to talk for a few minutes about nothing. It was another example of a psuedo-friendship without all the trimmings. Skeletal remains of an existence that might have been more fantasy than reality. He called to hear her voice, but he spoke instead of the guy he knew who just started his own taco business within a business center. He tells her a joke that is not remotely humorous, but she offers a chuckle. He's on his way in to work so he can't talk long...the conversations are timed this way so no one has to say anything meaningful.

She hangs up and smiles. It doesn't hurt the way it used to...back when wisdom was something someone else had that she envied. Sometimes all that was left was all that was there, and sometimes not. She had to trust innately that there was a reason for that - even when she couldn't readily call it out.

Later that night, he would call again. Home from work, he was tired and about to shower then go to bed. As he said it, the familiar scent of his skin just home from work filled her nostrils. Earthy and dirty sweet, like a cupcake dropped for just an instant in the backyard. She doubted that his night would end that innocently, but none of that mattered anymore.

How have you been, he would ask. She would reply that she was alright.

And she was.