March 19, 2024: My Wife and Her Best Friends （妻と親友）

The other day, my wife went out to meet her two best friends. It was one of their regular meetings held a few times a year. They always communicate with each other through an SNS, Line. But Line does not fully satisfy them. So they need to meet face to face for a very long talk. On the day when she meets her best friends, she is always in high spirits from the morning and leaves home early. As usual, on that day, she was going out so early that I could not help but ask her if she had to leave so early. Then, she told me that she had to do so as it was so windy that it might cause a delay in the train.
She seemed to have met her friends at a hotel in Tokyo at ten or eleven in the morning. They talked a lot over lunch in a restaurant at the hotel. They stayed in the restaurant for three hours. Then, they moved to another tea room in the hotel and had another long talk for another couple of hours. In the end, they talked for about six or seven hours a day. Their long talk always surprises me and makes me wonder what they talk about. But one thing I can say for sure is that the talk is a source of my wife's energy.
She has been keeping on good terms with the two friends for a very long time, more than twenty years. But my wife's first meetings with them are very interesting. It was not in Japan but in Europe that she met them for the first time. She met one of them in the Netherlands. The friend moved near our house with the two children, one of whom was the same age as our daughter. Then, I did not know why, but she immediately got along with my wife. They seemed to have had a good chemistry. They have been on good terms ever since. It was in London that my wife met another of her best friends. One day, she went to a post office and, by chance, met the friend there. I do not know what words they exchanged there. But she was immediately invited to the friend's house. They have been on good terms ever since.
How possible is it that such a long and good friendship comes from these chance meetings?

　先日、妻が二人の親友に会いに出かけました。年に数回の恒例行事です。彼女たちはLINEで常に連絡を取り合っているのですが、LINEでは満足できないようです。そのため、直接会ってじっくり話をする必要があるようです。友人と会う日は、いつも朝からそわそわして、早めに家を出ます。先日も、あまりに早く家を出るので、思わず「そんなに早くいかなきゃいけないの？ 」と聞いてしまいました。風が強くて、電車が遅れるかもしれないので、早めに出ると言い返されてしまいました。
　午前の10時か11時に東京のホテルで友人たちと会う予定だったようです。ホテルのレストランで昼食をとりながら、３人はたっぷりと話をして、レストランには3時間ほどいたようです。その後も、ホテル内の別の喫茶店に移動して、さらに数間ほど話し込んだようです。結局、３人は1日で6、7時間も話したことになります。彼女たちの長話にはいつも驚かされると同時に、何の話しているのか不思議でしかたありません。でも、ひとつだけ確実に言えるのは、この話が妻の活力源になっているということです。
　妻と2人の友人との関係は長く、20年以上も続いています。でも、妻と彼女たちとの初めて出会いは、とても興味深いです。初めて会ったのは日本ではなくヨーロッパだったのです。そのうちの一人とはオランダで出会いました。その友人は2人の子供を連れてボクの家の近くに引っ越してきました。すると、なぜかわかりませんが、彼女はすぐに妻と仲良くなりました。相性が合ったようです。それ以来、二人は仲良くしています。もう一人の親友と出会ったのはロンドンでした。ある日、妻が、郵便局に行った時に、そこで偶然その友人と出会いました。そこでどんな言葉を交わしたかは知りませんが、妻がすぐにその友人の家に招かれ、それ以来、２人は仲良くしています。
　こんな偶然の出会いから、これほど長い友情が生まれるものかと思ってしまいます！