the great leslie

My friends Mary and Bryan move to Maine tomorrow. Their yellow Penske truck is probably all packed and parked in Carroll Gardens tonight, their last night in Brooklyn. They roll out in the morning, on their way to Portland, and an apartment overlooking the Casco Bay.

Mary and I went to Waterville High School together, in Waterville, Maine. She and I were doubles partners on the varsity tennis team. We also graduated from graduate school at Columbia on the same day, and we celebrated with our families that night at a little restaurant on the Upper West Side (Epices, where another high school friend, Cherie, worked for several years before she moved back to Waterville).

We had a drink in Brooklyn last week, Mary and I, and she gave me a present: a Maine state flag. I opened the plastic CVS bag and knew exactly what it was as soon as I saw and touched the dark blue nylon.

'Dirigo' ('I lead'), the state motto, arches over a pine tree and moose, with a sailor and a farmer on either side. Mary said her parents flew this particular flag over the state capital in Augusta on her 26th birthday. She has the word 'dirigo' tattooed on her wrist.

Bryan told Mary she couldn't have the Maine flag up in their Maine apartment, as she had in her Brooklyn apartment. And so she gave it to me (actually, it's more of a long-term loan).

This was a most touching gift; I love it very much. And I hung it above my bed, where it will stay until I have my own yellow truck to pack and drive home to the Pine Tree State.