The odds of it happening aren’t good. If I told you the story you might not believe me, because it sounds like the basis of a movie script.

Two girls, both only children and the best of friends, grew up together in a small Northern California town called Kenwood. Leslie and Dilly met on the first day of first grade when Dilly took Leslie’s hand in hers to give her a tour of their elementary school. The brown-haired, brown-eyed girls shared a rare closeness, forged by their common gentle natures and sibling-free status. Whether exploring the beautiful creeks and lush valleys of their hometown or enjoying frequent sleepovers on thick foam mats in front of Dilly’s parents’ crackling fireplace Leslie and Dilly discussed their unknowable futures. What careers would they choose? Would they have children? Where would they travel? Who will they love? The girls went to school together, took dance classes, played soccer, and read voraciously.

In fourth grade, they won the roles of the Peach Tree (Dilly) and the Pine Tree (Leslie) in the holiday play. The girl’s four parents– all uniquely talented and creative—assisted in the building of the tree costumes/props; Dilly’s stately peach tree featured round and luscious-looking paper fruit while Leslie’s dark-green pine with dangling ornamental cones towered over her onstage.

Eventually, the teen years settled on the girls’ tender shoulders and the two began to drift in separate directions. They fell in with different crowds, Leslie’s more social and mainstream, Dilly’s cerebral and alternative. While remaining friendly, they spread their wings separately, each young woman setting off down her own complex and glorious life path.

When she turned fifteen Leslie’s family moved to the East Coast. For a long time after the move, there was a Dilly-sized hole in Leslie’s heart. Before, she never missed having a sibling because she had Dilly, but now Dilly was gone and Leslie couldn’t imagine anyone taking her place. Leslie realized that it was likely no friend would ever know her as well, or accept her as lovingly as Dilly had, and she mourned the friendship as she might a death.

Decades passed and after traveling the world and going to school on the East Coast, Leslie landed in San Francisco. Dilly goes to college, moves to Chicago, attends graduate school in Texas, and eventually settles in Los Angeles. Occasionally the two exchange brief, somewhat formal greeting cards.

One day, when Leslie and Dilly are in their early thirties, their mothers take a hike together. The mothers are friends and have remained in touch despite living on opposite coasts. The conversation turns to their daughters and Leslie’s mother mentions that Leslie is dating a young man from Bloomington, Indiana.

Dilly’s mother is incredulous. “Dilly is dating a guy from Bloomington, Indiana too!”

For a moment, the two mothers wonder if their daughters could be dating the same guy but soon learn that the men have different names. Crisis averted.

A few days later Leslie’s mother shares this oddity with Leslie’s boyfriend Malcolm and mentions Dilly’s boyfriend’s name. Malcolm is incredulous. “Daniel!? We grew up together, our parents were good friends and taught at the University together. We played all the time when we were kids. I think I called my grandmother Grammy because Daniel called his grandmother that.”

Everyone involved is amazed. A meet-up is arranged in Los Angeles and the two young couples, made up of four old friends, get along famously. New, grown-up friendships are forged. A few years later, when Leslie and Malcolm attend Dilly and Daniel’s elegant wedding in Dilly’s parents’ Kenwood backyard Malcolm knows many of the Midwest guests and Leslie the California contingent.

But there’s more. Leslie and Malcolm leave California and settle in Malcolm’s Indiana hometown. They grow a family and create a Midwest-based life together. Daniel’s mother has remained in Bloomington and Dilly and Daniel often visit from their home in Los Angeles, where they now own a successful business and raise their son.

This means that Leslie and Dilly get to spend time together and re-stitch the fabric of their sisterhood. In fact, just the other day they took a five-mile hike through the Indiana woods. As their footsteps echoed through the springtime forest the two reviewed their rich lives—their chosen careers (writer and artist among other trades), their loves and losses, the three children shared between them and their world travels.

When Dilly reached for Leslie’s hand back on the first day of first grade she could never have imagined that forty-six years later she would be crunching down a leaf-covered trail in Indiana with that same Leslie.

While the future forever remains unknowable, the past is complete, and the present is really all we have. Now is the time to love each other, to cherish friendship. The unlikely yet sublime story these two friends share suggests that sometimes, despite ourselves, there are greater forces at work over a lifetime than we can fully comprehend.