Chapter 2

I was the unattached male in our group, and it was my big idea, so I walked across the big room and approached Shirley Kiner, still seated alone at the big round table-for-eight.

"Hi, Shirley!... Remember me? Chad Prince."

"Hi, Chad. Sure, I remember you."

"Ummm. I'm over across the room, there, with some classmates of ours -- part of my old crowd. Do you remember Reggie? Reggie Josephson? And Hermie Elliott?"

"I think so, yes... And that woman, there -- wasn't she in our class, too?"

"That's Marsha, Reggie's wife. She went to school here, but she was two years behind us."

"I remember her, too," Shirley said.

"Why don't you come over and join us?" I said.

"You sure?"

"Am I sure? Sure, I'm sure! If you're not waiting for anybody in particular, c'mon over to our table."

"OK. --No, I'm not waiting for anyone."

"Don't forget your little wrap, there," I told her, when she was about to leave her table. Shirley seemed a little out of it. Timid. Reserved. She grabbed the bit of cloth and followed me across the empty dance floor to our side of the big room.

"Hey, everybody! You remember Shirley Kiner!" I said. "--It is still 'Kiner, ' isn't it?"

"Still Kiner," she said. "I'm an old maid."

"Best-looking old maid I ever saw," Reggie blurted. I wondered whether Marsha would object to his flirtatious remark, but saw no sign that she did.

Shirley blushed. "I don't think I know you," she said, addressing Herm's wife, Betsy.

"No," Betsy said. "I didn't go to school here. But Herm drags me to these things every time they have one. This is my third time. One more and I get an honorary diploma."

"It's nice to see you again, Shirley," Herm said. "Sit down and join us."

Shirley took a chair that I held out for her, and I sat down beside her, to her left. Marsha was to her immediate right.

There was a lengthy silence as everyone wondered where to take the conversation from there. Finally, Betsy took the ball and ran with it. "I didn't see you at the five or the ten-year reunion," she said to Shirley. "Did you miss both of those?"

"Yes, I did," Shirley said. In fact, this is only the second time I've been back in town, since leaving after graduation."

"Well, it's nice you decided to come," Herm said, trying his best to be warm and accepting.

"I'm really in town because my father died," Shirley said.

"Oh, gosh, I'm sorry!" I told her. "I don't think any of us knew about that."

"It just happened, four days ago," Shirley explained. "The funeral was Wednesday."

"How awful for you!" Betsy said.

"Well. We weren't -- real close."

"Still, it's hard, isn't it?" Marsha said, touching Shirley's hand where it rested on the table. "My mom died a couple of years ago. It's -- hard."

Another pregnant pause in the conversation. Herm filled the silence. "How long are you going to be in town?" he asked Shirley.

"I'm leaving tomorrow," she said. "My mom is moving in with her brother and his wife, and selling our old house."

"You going back to California?" Herm asked. "I heard you were living out there."

Shirley blushed. "No -- I mean, yes, I have been living out there, until recently, but I had already left when my dad died. I was in the process of coming back -- not to Cloverdale, but to Missouri, anyway. I'm going to go to college here."

"Really?" I said, interested. "Where are you going?"

"I'm enrolled at Southeast -- in Cape Girardeau."

"Wow! That's great!" Betsy said. "We live in Cape Girardeau, too! I mean, Herm and I do -- and Chad!"

"We're in St. Louis," Marsha explained. Reggie and I, I mean."

"Quite a coincidence," Shirley said. It didn't sound as if she was entirely pleased to hear that some of her old high school classmates would be so nearby. Cape Girardeau was considerably larger than Cloverdale, but it was itself only a small city.

"That's not the end of the coincidence," I told her. "We not only live there, but both of us -- Herm and I -- are associated with the University."

"Yeah," Herm chimed in. "I'm the PR guy for the school, and Chad's on the faculty!"

"Gosh. That's... interesting," Shirley said. "And kind of... intimidating. I figured all my classmates from Cloverdale would have long-since finished their own college careers and scattered to the four winds. It didn't occur to me that some of you could be -- on the faculty, by now."

"I think we're the only ones," Herm said, "if that's any comfort to you."

"Well. Actually, I really was kind of -- well, seeking some anonymity," Shirley said. "I mean... you probably remember, about my... my magazine photos."

"Yeah," Herm said.

"Yes," I said. "I'm not going to pretend I don't remember that. I mean, it was pretty -- memorable!"

Shirley laughed -- a little. "Well, at least you're honest," she said.

"That's all water under the bridge," Herm said, kindly. "If you want anonymity at Southeast, I hope you will get it."

"Does that mean, as Director of Public Relations, you're not going to send out a news release about the notorious Shirley Kiner, enrolling as a freshman at the local U?"