The Best of Friends
I choose an audio story about two best friends, recounting a couple moments in their lives that seem to reflect the pivotal strength of their friendship. I felt connected to this story because I have a best friend back home that I have known since kindergarten, and if in twenty years we can still be best friends and in each others lives all the time that will be an amazing feeling. Thus the story draws me in because it gives me something I can look forward to and yearn for later in life.
This audio story uses sound in the very end, as a resolution or ending to the particular moment the two women are talking about. When the music starts they are getting emotional and saying how they are so happy to be in each others lives, thus letting the music emphasize those emotions with a soft, sweet, and relaxing tone that provides a good background to a happy ending.
The story begins in the middle, with the friends recounting a moment from sixth grade when they officially became “blood sisters.” They then fast forward to the end, when they recount a moment soon after the birth of one of their children. The thing that keeps me listening is the stories they share, and hearing those moments of fear or agony and wanting to make sure everything turns out okay. I wanted to know if they were actually going to prick each other’s fingers or chicken out, compelling me to listen to how the one who did have the courage to do so later became a nurse. I wanted to know if the friend’s baby was going to be okay, compelling me to listen and feel relieved when the baby only needed a surgery.
The story fixes me in a certain time and place through the concrete examples the friends use. They specifically recount a moment in sixth grade when they were going to prick each other with cactus needles, making me picture two thirteen year olds standing in the backyard, across from each other, fingers pointed, heads down and close together, figuring out who was going to go first. I can imagine the one who did have the guts to do it leaning down, a very concentrated look on her face, quickly pricking her own finger, because of that concrete detail of how she later became a nurse.
The two are also very conversational and informal, shown in their relaxed tone and varied inflection and rhythm in their speech. It seems like they are having a conversation with me, myself asking questions about their childhood and them just filling in the blanks. They are very relaxed, with the tone getting only slightly more serious at the end when they say how important they are to each other. Regardless, they are just going off what they remember throughout the whole story; it is not a grand speech of an in depth look at their friendship but instead a couple critical and memorable moments that remind them of them of how much they love each other.
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This audio story was very touching. The two woman were such an important support system for each other and the example of the child becoming ill illustrated their bond very well.
One moment in the story that stood out to me was when Kylee Fenton said “he listened to his heart with his stethoscope. And he listened, and he listened. And then he got up and he shut the door and he came back and he listened some more.”
The repetition created a level of suspense and her calm slow tone added to the suspense. Hearing her voice created additional suspense that might be overlooked if I was just reading the story.
I also enjoyed this audio story because I met most of my best friends in elementary school, and it gives me hope that I can stay close to my friends for potentially the rest of my life. I believe the ideal listener for this story would be people like myself, who can relate to a story of long lasting friendships. The woman who tells the story about her baby with heart trouble brings emotion to the story. You can tell she is getting choked up towards the end, and it tugs on the listeners heartstrings and helps them imagine what it might be like to go through an event like they did.