Chapter 10: Reunion

Wednesday, July 28, 1982

I tried Mikayla. She wasn’t home. Her mom said she’d have her call me when she got back, which would likely be that evening.

Then I tried Paige and got pretty much the same story. One had to wonder if what they were busy with was each other. It was within the realm of possibility.

I spent most of the day working on my computer. I do actually mean ‘working.’ Knocking the rust off my computer skills was a good idea. Oh, I could use the thing very well, and my knowledge was right up there with professionals, but my day-to-day programming skills ... weren’t. That had to be addressed. I’d planned on knocking the rust off in Mr. Hannity’s Computer Math, but Drama had stolen that elective spot. All for the best, but...

In my defense, the guy most likely to succeed in the computer industry at Memorial never graced Mr. Hannity’s classes with his presence, so why should I? That is, aside from nostalgia, which is always a powerful factor.

The phone rang around five-thirty.

“Hey! Steve!”

“Hi, Paige! How goes the summer?”

“Pretty good, really. Oh, I miss all the people who’re gone right now, but I’ve been having a great time.”

“The same for me, now that I’m back. Before that, I was super-busy. Still missing people, but super-busy.”

She chuckled. “I can only imagine. How’d Angie do in Drama?”

“I heard good things. We didn’t get to see their stuff, and they didn’t get to see ours. She turned her ankle, so she didn’t get to dance in their show, but she did a lot of vocal work and other things.”

“Ouch! Cool, though. She’s feeling better?”

“Yeah, she is.”

“I want to get together, and soon, but not right away. I promised my parents I’d do some family things over the summer while we can,” she said.

“We’re sorta doing that tomorrow.”

“Sorta?”

“Family school shopping day,” I said.

“Oh! Well, at least your mom respects your clothing choices. Mine does, but that’s because I forced the issue.”

“She does pretty well, now that we’ve gotten her trained.”

She giggled. “I like it! Okay ... I’d better run. Gonna talk to Jas soon?”

“In a couple of hours, I think.”

“Good! Tell her to get her ass home!”

“She said she worked it off.”

Paige giggled even more. “Yeah, right. I’m sure it’ll be as cute as ever.”

“Me, too.”

She made a kissing sound. “Soon!”

I kissed back. “Soon!”

“Bye!”

Mikayla called a bit later. Same story; busy, busy, busy, but she’d love to see me soon.

Angie and I both got on the phone around seven.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Erwin. It’s Steve...”

“ ... and Angie.”

“Oh! Hello! So good to hear from you! How have your summers been?”

“We just got back from our summer program a few days ago. We didn’t want to go too long without catching up with Candice,” I said.

“She’ll love it. I’ll have her get the phone.”

He stepped away, then I heard him call out, “Candice! Phone!”

A few seconds later, the phone clicked. “Hello?”

“Hi, Candice!”

“Hey, hon!”

“Steve! Angie! How are you?”

I heard Erwin hang his phone up.

“We’re great,” Angie said. “We just got back from Indiana a few days ago. We’ve been goofing off, but we needed to catch up with you.”

“How was it?” Candice asked.

“Busy. So busy. And I turned my ankle, but that’s getting better,” Angie said.

“Busy for me, too, but we did great.”

“Cammie and you, you mean? Did you kick everybody’s ass?” Candice said, giggling.

“We did!”

“Awesome! I figured you two would, if they let you debate together.”

“It was pretty cool,” I said. “Tiring, but cool.”

“It’d be too much stress and too uncertain an environment for me this year,” Candice said, sighing. “But ... that’s this year. I know my limitations, but I also know they keep changing. Maybe next year, somewhere.”

Angie giggled a bit. “If it’s guys that are the trigger, I gotta say, they were so strict. You could’ve gone the whole time and not been anywhere near alone with anyone male.”

“Mostly guys. A girl could be an issue, but ... unlikely. Really unlikely. And, I mean, I know almost all guys are fine. It’s just a few. Okay, no, that’s not it, it’s that I can’t know which is which, so I have to overreact, except for guys like Steve.”

“Sucks, but we know how much better you’re doing,” Angie said.

“Which means a lot to me. I’m so glad we’re still good friends. I ... I thought I’d lose you, early on. You know ... they wouldn’t let us be friends, and I’d said I hated you both, and you knew awful things about me...”

“Nah. We knew they’d let us, when they could,” I said. “And of course you hated us. We knew that was going to happen. And the awful things were never about you.”

“Yeah,” Angie said. “All of that. Of course, if you still hated us, knowing you were okay and happy would be enough.”

Candice giggled a bit. “And I couldn’t possibly hate someone who felt that way, ‘cuz, that’d be dumb.”

“How’s Sherry?” Angie asked.

“She’s great! Right now she’s great in Arizona, though. Family trip to the Grand Canyon. I almost went, but ... next time.”

“Her parents...?” I said.

“Understand the ... situation. We’re good.”

“Good,” Angie said.

We gabbed for another fifteen minutes before we had to get off the phone ahead of Jasmine’s call. By this point I could admit to myself that Candice and I might well have burned out long before this, and that — in a bizarre way — perhaps we’d arrived at the best outcome in terms of remaining important to each other. Perhaps that was a most ‘Candide’ way of looking at things — or the ends justifying the means, either way — but it still might well be true.

Jasmine called right on time. “Hey, Steve. How’s it going?” I heard her stifle a yawn.

“Hi, Jas. Pretty good. Maybe a trifle boring. Waiting for everyone to get home. How about with you?”

“So busy! But the show is ... well, it’s coming together pretty well. Nothing like our ‘Brigadoon’, but it’s a minor miracle in three weeks. This is hard!”

“Good, fun, hard?”

“Oh, yeah, it’s good, and fun. Just ... so much work! Did you look up any of the gang?”

“Paige is busy with family stuff. Mikayla’s just busy with something-or-other. Didn’t try many of the others. I know quite a few are out of town, with vacation or summer programs.”

“Yeah. So ... Jessica, Friday?”

I thought there was something in her voice, but ... who knows? We were being careful of Jessica anyway, given the obvious issues.

“Yeah. I don’t know if she’ll want to get together, and ... well, you know the situation. I can’t just be carefree there.”

She hesitated a second, then sighed. “Nope. No, you can’t. Well ... who knows?”

“And then you’re back the next day, and I can’t wait for that.”

“Me, neither. It’s been way too long,” she said, stifling another yawn.

“I’ll be at the airport.”

“You don’t have to do that. It’ll keep until I’m home.”

“Nah. I drive across town all the time. Unless you want to keep it to just family.”

“Nah,” she said. “They’ll be thrilled you’re there. Mama is already naming the babies, I swear.”

“I think that’s our job. With some input from them, anyway.”

She giggled just a bit. “You don’t know Mama. She’ll have a ton of input.”

“Which you’ll listen to, then do what you decide to do.”

“You do know me well. Still, when Mama gets going...”

“I get it. I have a mom, too. Different from yours, but...”

“I love your mom, and I can see her being tenacious when she really wants something.” She sighed again. “Okay, I have to go. I haven’t even had much time for Blue. There’s just so much to do. Tomorrow is dress rehearsal, Friday is the performance. And I mean, dress rehearsals and performances.” She stressed the ending S on each. “We all have lead in one of them, so ... that means chorus in another one. Or two.”

“Busy, busy, busy.”

“Love you, Steve.”

“Love you, Jas.”

“Saturday. But we’ll talk Friday.”

“Can’t wait!”

Thursday, July 29, 1982

Angie and I spent the day shopping with Mom. Department stores, the mall, and a men’s store. All of that, and I was sure we’d want at least one more trip.

Aside from that ... well, there wasn’t much aside from that. Angie and I convinced Mom and Dad to play a few board games with us. I’d missed that, and so had she. It turned out they had, too.

As much fun as our lives were, we needed to find more time to do things like that. Not just for cynical reasons (though there was some point to those, too), but for the best reasons of all: we loved them, and they loved us. One day they’d be gone. I hoped it would be many, many years later, as it had been the first go-round, but ... Mom could have died from the bleeding ulcers, and Dad had had his own close calls.

Life is precious. Angie and I, despite our amazing second chance, knew that better than nearly anyone else. One day they’d be gone. Or, we’d be gone — Mom and Dad had both outlived Angie on her first go-round. From one perspective we had all the time in the world, but from another, well ... what is put off until tomorrow too many times never happens at all.

Friday, July 30, 1982

We’d spent enough time avoiding the work we knew was coming. Finally, enough was enough. Angie and I got out a couple of card tables and invited Cammie, Gene, and Bree over. They’d been back as long as we had, and had needed the break just as much, but now we could get a jump on the next wave of returning friends. Anne and Megan were due back from Kansas on Saturday. The rest would be back a week later.

First, we caught each other up on our summer programs. Gene and Bree had opted to partner up and made it to semifinals in their tournament. Bree still had just a trace of the giddiness that she’d picked up once she started trying. I couldn’t blame her; she’d gone from dilettante to successful competitor faster than anyone else I knew. Of course, it was all new to her, still.

After we’d caught up, we got out our piles of paper and started sorting. The best was to find a full sheet that was redundant. If that didn’t happen, we marked which quotes we’d use and which we had somewhere else. The goal of all of this was simple: we’d all be copying everything for everyone on the team. No one wanted two copies of the same evidence card, much less more. The more we sorted now, the less we’d have to do later.

We would have to do this again when the others got back, of course. Everything has a downside, even being handed a mountain of great evidence before the year begins. Well — one mountain is great. It’s when you have five mountains that need to be merged that things get to be a pain in the ass.

We knocked off around five so that everyone could have dinner with their families. We would all miss enough family dinners over the next year, after all.

The phone rang just before eight. I grabbed it, figuring it would be Jasmine.

“Uh ... hello?”

“Jessica! You’re back?”

“I’m back,” she said with a sigh. “And exhausted. Cheer camp takes a lot out of you.”

“I imagine it must! I hope it went well.”

She hesitated a bit. “It did. Really, quite well.”

“Good! I’m glad.”

“Um ... we do need to get together ... but, can we wait a week, maybe?”

“Sure. No problem. When you’re ready, we’ll get together. Just let me know and we’ll find a good time.”

“I’m ready now, it’s just ... well, I guess I’m not. I’m looking forward to it, I just ... need a ... week or so.”

“Okay. Well, I’m looking forward to it.”

“Me, too, Steve. Me, too,” she said.

“I should go. Jasmine will call soon.”

“Okay. It’s good to hear your voice.”

“It’s good to hear yours, too.”

“Bye, Steve.”

“Bye, Jessica.”

“I ... uh, no. Bye.” She hung up.

I’d no sooner started to try making sense out of that call when the phone rang.

“Steve?”

“Hi, Jas!”

“The phone was busy.”

“I know. Jessica called. She was ... I don’t know ... kinda ... unlike herself.”

“Huh. Weird.” She hesitated just a second. “I’m glad I got through. You’ve got my flight information?”

“I think so. Intercontinental Airport at five-thirty, right?”

“Yeah. Mama and Papa will be there around five, I think. Gate B87.”

“I’ll be there.”

“Looking forward to seeing you! I’d suggest that you ride with Mama and Papa, but they’re using it as an excuse to visit friends up in Spring.”

“Makes sense. If I had friends up in Spring I’d do that, too.”

She giggled a bit. “I’ll decide who I’m riding home with when I see how things go.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

She sighed. “Getting home is going to be good. This was fun, but ... getting home will be good.”

“I love you, honey, and I miss you. It’ll be very good.”

“Okay, I’m going off to have dinner and finish packing. See you tomorrow!”