bubble friend

panzón, coco and i were recently in san francisco visiting my sister, her husband and their adorable baby boy. during our visit, we met up with our childhood friend, who i affectionately call ñaña, at the california academy of sciences (http://www.calacademy.org/). talking to ñaña on the bubbly green roof of the building, designed by italian architect renzo piano (http://rpbw.r.ui-pro.com/), i felt like we were in one of our childhood make believe worlds and was half expecting spot a grazing my little pony, or two.
at the little french school in guadalajara (mexico, not spain), ñaña and i were instant best friends, immediately becoming uña y mugre, which literally means "fingernail and dirt". we both spoke english and held a firm belief that no one else at the school, except for our sisters of course, could understand us. so, with our english and our imagination, we created a big and soapy, yet delicate, bubble around ourselves, where we had fabulous carrot-juice-in-a-thermos-top tea parties and took really long bubble baths that made our fingers wrinkly. we happily floated together.
ñaña has detailed memories of it all. my memory, like san francisco, is foggy, but, over a thai soup, she patiently reminded me about things that i had forgotten. for example, her eating my unwanted hard-boiled eggs and the time she choked on a piece of food and turned blue and the time i threw a marble at a boy's head.
even though i can't remember exactly what we played, i do remember how we played. peacefully. there was no such thing as a power struggle. we understood each other and always agreed on something. one of the things we agreed on, and this i do remember, was that we would be friends until we were one hundred years old. or was it one hundred and one?