Opaque

In the town that I grew up in There was this girl I knew next door Her name was Eileen May Frances Winfield I called her Ellie just for short
Ever since I can remember We were as close as kids could be We fished for bull-heads at the culvert She even climbed that big oak tree
I used to say "Hey Ellie May, won't you come on out to play I need you just to hold my hand and tell me stories all day long Hey Ellie May, i'll just wait out here all day Until you come on out and run with me down through the trees"
Now she was a little older A little smarter just the same She used to quote me lines from Shakespeare While I read aloud Mark Twain
And we savored all the good times We stuck it out through all the bad And through the early years of my youth She was the only friend I had
Now around the time I went to high school Ellie's family moved out of town And though we wrote each other every single day I never, never felt so down
One day the letters stopped coming And some of mine came back returned So I took all those of hers that I saved Put them in the fire and watched them burn
How can time ruin friendships? How can distance play a part? How can fate be the dull blade that severs the ties That bind out lonely hearts?
Why do children have to grow old? Why do old friends always change? How can something that once meant so much Mean less than anything?