My Friend, The Onion.

I have this friend. Let’s call her…Balicia. And she is an onion if I’ve ever met one.

She sounds simple enough starting out; stay-at-home mother, with a beautiful two-year old daughter. She enjoys “Sons of Anarchy”, and being with her family. But the more you get to know her, the layers start peeling off. And these layers– they are amazing.

LAYER 1.

She’s got Celiac’s Disease. She cannot eat wheat, any part of it.

LAYER 2.

I thought I had a good grasp on her, we had known each other for a while. And then one day I noticed an insulin pump tucked beneath her shirt.

“Yes, I am diabetic, too.” She stated.

LAYER 3.

A couple of us were sitting around talking about exercise, and Balicia explained that she had a lot of leg problems, and had had many surgeries.

“I was born with a partial hip and double or half of most stuff from my hip down…”

LAYER 4.

Weeks passed, and we were discussing the possibility of having twins or even triplets. I said I couldn’t imagine how much work that would be.

“I had a twin,” She innocently began.

“You did?!”

“I had a twin. And  part of it is still in my body.”

LAYER 5.

Balicia is blonde. She is sweet, funny and stereotypically someone you would never expect– but Balicia has a darker side. Sitting at the park one day with playgroup, she mentioned how she would have loved to see all of us mothers in our younger years. I mused I hadn’t changed much, besides the accumulation of grey hairs and bags under my eyes.

“What were you like in your early 20’s?” I asked.

“I was a goth.” Said Balicia.

“You wore dark eye makeup?”

“No. I was a goth. I worked at goth clubs, wore goth clothes and had goth friends. But I was an Etherial goth.”

“There are types?” I said, dumbfounded. THIS WOMAN WAS AN ONION. THERE WERE LAYERS FLYING OFF– LEFT AND RIGHT.

“Yes. There are Industrial (AKA Steam-punk), Hardcore, Fantasy (Vampire) and Fetish. I was Ethereal. I wore flowing capes. I wasn’t angry enough to be the other kind.”

LAYER 6.

Halloween rolled around and we took turns hosting playgroup. Balicia had brought up her love of Halloween, so it was no surprise when she told us she had lots of decorations. (Side-note: She also has a love for skulls). We thought it would be fun if us parents dressed up, and I jokingly suggested she go as a goth.

“I’ve still got my cape!” She said.

Fantastic.

LAYER 7.

“So I’ve been selling my Snow White collection on Ebay,” Balicia told me on a Tuesday.

“Your what?”

“Oh yeah. I used to collect Snow White stuff. All kinds of stuff.” Balicia then went on to explain the ins and outs of her collection, which includes pencils, charms, egg dying kits, happy meal toys, autographs, soaps and many, many more.

“What can I say? I liked Snow White.”

LAYER 8.

Balicia is an archer.

While mindlessly shopping one day, our mutual friend, previously refereed to as Mephanie, pointed out a bow and arrow set.

“HA! We should totally get that for Balicia.”

I shook my head. What??

“You know she’s an archer, right? She actually got really good at it when she was younger.”

The beauty of this fantastic, complex woman is that she is so vividly layered and you would never know it from looking at her. And her quirkiness is not braggery– in fact, it is always naturally occurring. She isn’t eccentric for attentions’ sake. This beautiful, sweet, caring woman is so much more the meets the eye. And there’s a lesson in it for all of us; you can never judge a person by just looking at them. And be careful, because you don’t want to piss off someone who can’t eat bread, potentially has low blood sugar, has a high tolerance for pain, used to wear a cape (OK, still does), was formally obsessed with a dark Disney fantasy, and knows how to use a dangerous (be it primitive) weapon.