What could be said about Susan? She was an incredible person. A woman that every man wanted, and every woman wanted to be friends with. I was very blessed because out of all the people Susan could have chosen to be her best friend, she picked me and it felt like an honor.
If I tell you about her and what came to be her last days, I guess I should also tell you how we came to meet.
It was Aug. 7, 1987 when I first came to meet Susan Flank. I was only 9 years old at the time. My parents and I went over to a friend’s house for a small get together and there sitting in a corner wearing a pair of glasses was little Susan Flank. My mom told me to go and say hello to the girl, so I did.
Susan looked at me with those big brown eyes and said hello as a warm smile appeared on her face. I sat down on the floor next to her, and she told me, “Don’t, your parents may get upset.”
So, she moved over so I could sit on the chair next to her. How was to know that this was going to be the start of a great friendship, a friendship that could only be destroyed by death.
Susan asked me if I wanted to play outside. I immediately accepted, and we got up and walked over to where our parents were sitting and told them. My dad told us to stay close to the house but to go ahead and have fun. The second we had the okay from both our parents, we ran out the door and stumbled into the front lawn.
We lived in a small town in Florida called Smith Homes. It was a town of less than 2,000 people so you knew that if something happened in this town, everyone would know within seconds.
The house we were at belonged to Mrs. Davidson who had been friends with my parents for as long as I could remember. We visit her at least three times a month, which was fine with me because she lived on a small ranch. I was always glad when we came to visit her. My young brother Maxwell didn’t feel the same as me. You see, he didn’t like animals as much as I did.
We ran over to where the chickens were, and began to chase after them. As a kid, it gave me so much joy to see how the chickens ran away. I know that sounds mean, and maybe it was, but at the age of 9, I saw it as having fun. Trust me when I say that I wasn’t trying to hurt them. We both fell to the ground as we began to laugh.
Susan made the strangest sound when she laughed which made me laugh even more. I noticed that she realized I was laughing at her laughing, but I saw that
it didn’t bother her. That night, when we were about to leave Mrs. Davidson home, I asked Susan for her phone number so we could talk. Susan smiled and asked her mom for a piece of paper and a pen. Her mother gave it to her, and she wrote down her number. We made a promise to each other that from this day on we will be friends.
What we promised each other that night at Mrs. Davidson's home, we went on to do. We went out every week together. At first it was hard; we had to do a lot of begging to see each other. But, after a while of begging her parents, they always gave in. As the years went on, it became easier for us to hang out, especially in 1992 when her father got a job working at the same company as my dad. So, her family moved to a house that was only five blocks away from mine.
We were at an age where we didn’t have to ask our parents to take us to see our friends anymore. We had our bikes now to get around. I had turned 14 and grown into a beautiful woman. Susan herself was becoming a gorgeous young lady, she had long blonde hair, and her boobs had begun to come out. She was becoming a beautiful woman.
At school, boys started to hit on us, and both of us had been asked to go out on dates. I had declined all the boy's offers, but Susan had been out on a couple of dates. After, she would tell me all about the dates such as where the boys had taken her and even when the