“Angel Falling To Close To The Ground” – Willie Nelson
From Honeysuckle Rose

I went to a fairly reserved and conservative college. I had a great time there, but there were a lot of stiff shirt types around. I say this to introduce a girl I once knew named Wendy. She was wild and free. A cool breeze. A rainbow of color in a sometimes pretty drab place.

She went through a number of troubles there, and anther good friend of mine helped her through some pretty rough times. This song always reminds me of them as she was very much the angel who had crashed landed, and he was the man who healed her and had to watch her fly away.

As these things happen, they formed a close relationship that often teased into romance and other things. They were never officially anything and only once unofficially something.

This one time happened late one night. Me and this friend were hanging out in his dorm room in the wee hours. I forget what we were doing, probably listening to music and talking about whatever college boys talk about late into the evening.

At any rate about the time I started to drift off he got a phone call from this Wendy. They talked for a long while in hushed tones and I fell asleep. Sometime later he got up and walked out the door, mentioning something about needing to go get a Coke.

Hours later, in the creeping moments of the morning light he came traipsing back into the room. “That must have been some Coke,” I said. With a big sheepish grin he said “yes, yes it was.”

I have never known exactly what took place in those midnight hours. Both friends remained quite quiet on the subject over the years. But to this day I can make him turned a number of bright shades by simply asking him to get me a Coke.