Long ago while in college, I met a girl named Barb, who more popularly went by the name Lupi. She was a grad student in chemistry. It was one of those relationships where we got along famously, but never would have dated. More like brother and sister... Rode bikes together, listened to similar music, cracked each other up... I remember once that she and I rode our bikes through a park in Ames late one night and I didn't see the wire stretched between two posts and I did the most spectacular header into a gravel parking lot. I just lay on my back staring upward, laughing into the clear sky above. Lupi gathered my bike from its awkward twist and then sat next to me. For the next 20 minutes, we had a beautiful conversation about the things we can see and the things we can't. It started from her wondering if I was unhurt because I couldn't see the wire and its trip took me by complete surprise. Years later, we fell out of touch, but she found me on the web and emailed me and then called. At this time, we were both married and I learned of her most loved husband. We talked of getting together. A few months later, her husband emailed me. He told me that she was in the passenger seat as they drove across rural Iowa. Another car ran a stop sign and t-boned them, hitting Lupi squarely. She died instantly. He contacted me after the funeral and just wanted me to know how much she was looking forward to seeing me again. I miss her laugh. And also racing shopping carts across the Cub Foods parking lot late at night. And then there was that incident of the frozen peas in the cereal aisle. What made me think of her was listening to Sting's "Why Should I Cry For You." I wonder if she ever found out what the "Stones of Pharaoh" were...  | 
