The Friend in Africa

Joan turned 38 this year and dreads the idea of turning 40. She’s never been married and has no kids. She has 2 cats and stays busy with work. Joan works overtime most weeks as the head nurse in the Emergency Room at the local hospital. She doesn’t have many outside-of-work friends even though she is well liked at work.

Although, she has one friend from high school that she keeps in contact with through chatting online. Frank is his name and he lives on the other side of the world doing missionary work in Africa. Joan likes to send him pictures of her cats and the cute things they do. And Frank sends pictures of the wildlife and animals. Joan adores every picture he sends.

Joan had been waiting for Frank to be online for more than two weeks and she hadn’t gotten a letter from him either. In his last letter, Frank told Joan he wouldn’t be able to be online to chat for a few days. He told her not to worry about him that he was going to a more remote part of the forest to a village where a pregnant woman was having complications.

While Joan was trying not to worry, she couldn’t help herself and she googled about the country Frank was in and tried to learn how safe he was there. This definitely wasn’t the smartest idea, because Joan became more worried when she learned that this country was in civil war right now. She became consumed with worry and couldn’t stop thinking about Frank. Joan hoped he was safe.

Joan was so worried about Frank that her work friends began asking her questions about her stressing out. One work friend even offered to take Joan out for coffee to talk after she started crying at work, but Joan didn’t think she wanted to share her friendship with Frank with another person. Maybe she was being selfish or maybe she was beginning to realize she cared about Frank more than she realized and just wanted to keep it secret.

More than a month had gone by and Joan was devastated, convinced she would never hear from Frank again. Just yesterday a coworker asked Joan to go out to dinner, but she was still thinking of Frank, even though she hadn’t heard from him in so long.

Today was a long day and Joan had just gotten home from working a double shift at the hospital. Sitting down to her dinner, she had the TV on to some comedy show when the doorbell rang. It was after 7pm, Joan wondered who would be at her house and unannounced as well. She was tired and really didn’t feel like company.

So, she walked over to her front door and yelled, “Who is it?”. But no one responded. She questioned if she should open the door, but what if it’s just the mail and a package was delivered later than normal. She decided to open the door.

Standing there as handsome as the day she met him in high school, Frank smiled and greeted Joan, “Hi, it’s so lovely to finally get to see you!”

Joan just laughed. She was so happy to see him and now know that he is safe. Frank laughed too and asked her, “Joan can I come in? I have so much I’d love to tell you about Africa and what happened in that small village deep in the forest.”

Joan bewildered by the surprise and feeling embarrassed, she said “Oh, of course! Please come in would you like some tea or coffee?”

And the two of them talked for hours. Joan told Frank about the raise she received and Frank showed her pictures of the baby he helped deliver. They just seemed to click like two old friends do. Joan was thrilled when Frank told her he had moved back now that his missionary work was finished. They laughed and grew closer with every story. The night became morning and Frank told Joan good-bye. Joan couldn’t believe she and Frank stayed up all night talking.

Over the next few months Joan and Frank continued to spend enormous amounts of time together and eventually Frank told Joan he loved her. They now live together and work at the same hospital together. Joan couldn’t be happier and no longer cares about her age. So, when she turns 40, it’s just another day.