Somewhere, high up in the hills, there is a bush that burns but is never consumed. They say a man named Moses first encountered God there, but I think maybe Moses had always known who God was, he just didn’t know what to call God until he saw that bush. Of course, the bush I’m talking about can’t possibly be the same one that Moses saw. Afterall, I don’t think Moses lived anywhere near here, and even if he did, he’s long dead by now. The bush I’m talking about isn’t a literal bush, and it’s not literally on fire either. Maybe I’m not explaining it well at all. I probably shouldn’t have tried to start off with that story of Moses; just trying to tie my story to something bigger that actually matters. What I really mean to say is, somewhere far away from everything else you know, in some remote place, there’s a chance you’ll find a miracle. For Moses, it was a bush that burned but was never consumed. For you, it’ll probably be something different. It sure was for me.

Let me see if I can explain it a bit better.

My name is Annie, and up until a year ago, I had one of those friends who was more like a sister. Her name is Jessica, but really I think her name should be Judas. It if was, perhaps she’d feel an ounce of remorse for what she did to me. She’d have to have a heart to feel remorse though. I thought she had a heart, and more specifically, I thought she had a heart for me. Turns out, she was just another fair weather friend who had never been asked to stick around in a storm.

And what a storm that blew between us. We had never had a fight before last summer. First time for everything right? Well, the storm was so big and damaging that there was nothing left after it blew itself out. Not a spec of love between us. It was like we had never known each other, and you know, come to think of it, maybe we never had.

I’m getting a bit ahead of the story, though. So me and Jessica. Best of friends. She’s one of those errand running friends- you know, the kind of friend you can call when you just want someone to go with you to do your shopping, to make it fun. But she was also a party friend. We were always going out. And we always talked about the guys we liked, and the ones we didn’t like, and the ones we dated. She got into a real steady thing with a guy once and then it fell apart almost overnight when she found out he had another girl too. And I was there for her. We were thick as thieves, as I’ve heard my grandpa say. In hindsight, I think I can admit that she wasn’t as there for me as I was for. Grandpa used to say something about that too. Trying to be friends with some people is like riding a bike on the highway. Or something like that. I think he just meant you were unmatched. If I was gonna do another Bible reference like the good girl my mom still thinks I am, I’d say we were unequally yoked.

Do you see where I’m going with this story? You know the kind of friend Jessica was, right? And I didn’t notice it until it was too late. By then, the hurricane winds had already blown the shutters off the house. I’d like to say it was something stupid that came between us, like a man, but it really wasn’t stupid at all. At the heart of it, it was the most serious thing in the world.

It was honesty. Honesty got between us.

If your friendship can’t survive honesty, then honey, let me tell you, you never were friends in the first place. You were just two people who were good at pretending.