Reunion

By Lindsay Renee Neumann

Chapter 1 ~ Drive

~~~~~~~

The rain splattered on the windshield, and she could hear the sound of the car wheels splashing through the puddles already on the road. The movement of the windshield wipers was getting monotonous, so she began humming to distract herself. Her cars CD player had bitten the dust last month and all her radio stations were broadcasting talk shows at the moment, so humming would have to do.

She tucked a strand of her long brown hair behind her ear and glanced down letter sitting on the seat next to her.

Kristy, it began.

I know its been a long time, but I felt the need to send out this letter. It took me forever to track everyone down, and I feel kind of bad about it, but I felt this was important. Please come …

The sound of cars passing her caused her to turn her attention to the road again. Rereading the letter she had received in the mail last weekend would have to wait until another time. Not that she needed to read it to remember what it said. She had reread that letter over and over again. Trying to memorize the words of her long lost friend.

She felt bad too, about what had happened, or for that matter what hadn’t happened.

But you can’t expect your high school friends to be you best friends forever, she reminded herself. It was a phrase she had repeated to herself often over the past 15 years. Things sure had changed.

She signaled to change lanes so she could pass the car in front of her. For some reason the driver felt the need to drive 20 miles below the speed limit. People like that always drove her crazy. But she was to preoccupied with her own thoughts to get frustrated with a slow driver.

Why was she doing this anyway. Driving the long ago familiar highway back to her childhood home of Stoneybrook. Sometimes she amazed herself when, being so willing to drop everything and go home.

Home. Stoneybrook hadn’t been home in years. But still there she was driving through the rain to get there. And why, for what?

Because Mary Anne asked me too.

~~~~~~

Chapter Two ~ Bittersweet Memories

~~~~~~

The arm chair in the living room looked so inviting, and she was tired. She sat down, closed her eyes and let out a sigh. A smile crept across her face. Exhausted as she was, this was a moment she had been waiting for, and she was going to treasure every minute of it. While she had dreamed of this moment through her teenage years and on into her college years it hadn’t seemed a possible reality until the day she became Mrs. Logan Bruno.

Mary Anne Bruno, she thought. The smile on her face grew wider and she stifled a giggle. It was a funny sounding name, one that made her laugh if she thought about it too much. Even when they first dated, she thought it was funny last name.

Bruno, who would have ever though I would have married Logan? She laughed in spite of herself. I mean people don’t marry their “middle school sweethearts”. It just doesn’t happen that way.

But for her it had. Logan was the only man she had ever truly loved and now she shared his name. She loved the fact that she was forever connected with him. And she was going to sit here in this arm chair and relish the fact that she had married the man of her dreams and their child was asleep in the next room.

She smiled again.

Our child, mine and Logan’s. It was a tiny miracle. Mary Anne had yearned for this moment for so long. Since…when was that again?

The memory came back to her, her eyes popped open and she sat up with a start. Forgetting her exhaustion she hurried up the stairs. She opened the door that led to the attic and climbed the narrow, dusty staircase.

The attic was filled with boxes and other odds and ends she and Logan had collected through the years. But despite the clutter, it wouldn’t take her long to find what she was looking for. She quickly located the antique wooden chest in the back corner of the attic. She was so glad she had bought it when she saw it so many years ago at a yard sale.

~~~~~~~~

“Oh, Logan, look at that trunk! Isn’t it absolutely perfect?” Mary Anne squeezed her husband’s arm as she led him through the maze of junk accumulating on the old man’s lawn.

“Perfect? Honey, it’s old.” Logan replied

“It’s an antique, Logan, and it beautiful.”

“Beautiful?”

The wooden chest looked like something a pirate had buried his treasure in. The dark mahogany wood had been scratched and was dirty. The brass fittings that had once been a shiny golden color were now tarnished with age. And the leather handles and lining were practically worn through.

“I want it,” Mary Anne said plainly.

“You want it?” Logan asked.

“Do you always have to repeat everything I say?” She turned and looked at her husband.

“You know I do,” he smiled at her, their eyes meeting in a gaze that seemed to make the rest of the world disappear. They were newlyweds, and the joy just being together was more than they could have hoped for.

“So, you want that trunk?” Logan spoke, bringing them back to reality.

“Yes, I do. It’s got character.”

“Character, huh?”

“Yes, character. Now go tell the owner we want to buy it.”

Smiling, Logan turned to look for the man who was running the yard sale.

“What am I going to do with you if you keep falling in love with old junk?” he said.

“I’d watch it bud, I married you after all.”

~~~~~~~~

She knelt down in front of the wooden chest and brushed the dust off the top. As she lifted the heavy lid and peered inside she smiled. A small happy tear made its way down her cheek.

If she were younger she would have chided herself for crying over something as small as this, but over the years and the many heartbreaks, she had learned to cherish the tears of joy that she cried.

~~~~~~~~

His strong arms were wrapped around her, and she could feel his heartbeat through his damp, tear soaked shirt. Her wrenching sobs had calmed some, but the salty tears continued to flow from her eyes. She could feel his shuddering breaths and knew he was crying as well. He pulled her in closer and she turned her face up toward his.

“I hate this,” she said in a whisper.

“I know, me too,” his voice sounding gravely and far off.

“I just want to know why?” She cried, “Why us? Why again?”

“I know, I’ve asked myself the same questions.”

“Our babies, Logan, they were our babies. And they died,” Mary Anne sobbed. Logan eyes spilled over in a flood tears. They sat silent, lost in there sorrows.

“I don’t want to try again,” she said again after a moment, “not if it means loosing another one, I can’t do this anymore.”

Logan was silent for a moment before replying, “Mary Anne, sweetie, we don’t have to try again, not until your ready, not until were both ready.”

“Its just this crying I’m sick of, this pain.” Mary Anne shifted so she was looking him in the eyes. His red eyes and tear stained face made her heart lurch, and she hiccupped another sob. “I mean, the past six months all I’ve been doing is crying.” Her voice broke and she buried her face in her hands.

Logan stroked her hair. “I feel the same way,” he said. “I’m sick of this. It’s like we keep getting bashed over the head with this thing, and as soon as we see a bit of hope, it happens again.”

She looked up again. “I didn’t know trying to be a family would hurt this much,” she told him, her voice barely above a whisper. “I didn’t know.” And the tears came again. Logan pulled her back into his embrace.

“I love you,” he whispered. And together they wept.

~~~~~~~~

Wiping the runaway tear from her cheek, Mary Anne began rummaging through her trunk. She had nicknamed the trunk her memory box. Inside it were all the things near and dear to her heart: photographs of her as a young child, photos of her father and her grandparents; photos of her mother; yearbooks from kindergarten on up were in here as well; old birthday cards and notes written to her in class; her high school diploma; a stack of photo albums and scrapbooks she had put together during her scrap-booking phase in high school; a few newspaper clippings commemorating the times when she and her friends had made the headlines in the local news; Tigger’s collar.

She hadn’t been to her memory box for a long time. She hadn’t come up to the attic during her pregnancy and couldn’t remember the time before that. She could have sat there for hours going through each item and reliving the memory for each and every one. But not today, do day Mary Anne was on a mission. Moving aside the loose papers and photographs, she found the treasure she was looking for. Her diary.

Mary Anne actually had many diaries. Her first one she started when she was eight years old. When she was sixteen she began trying to write in her diary everyday. It was a habit she had kept pretty well for the past fourteen years. The older she had gotten the less often she wrote, but writing down what happened to her each day, what emotions she was experiencing had become helpful to her. A way of setting her problems outside of herself, as well as a way to relive the joys she had experienced. Needless to say, Mary Anne’s memory box contained twelve diaries. Plus there was the one she had downstairs on her bedside table. Grabbing the few that she knew were from her late high school and early college years, she closed the trunk and headed back down stairs.

After taking a quick detour to check on her sleeping baby, she curled up in the arm chair one again. Setting the stack of diaries on the end table, she made her self comfortable and grabbed the first one off the stack.

The blue one, its cloth cover was fraying at the edges, and a black ink stain scarred the upper left corner from the time her pen exploded on her. The inside cover bore the dates the marked the end of her sophomore year to the almost the end of her junior year. She began flipping through the pages in search of the entry she was looking for. Finding it, she sat back and began to read.

March 24

Dear Diary,

I’m baby sitting for the Newton’s right now. Little Jamie and two little sisters. Well I guess that Jamie isn’t quite so little now, he’s eight. I finally just got his baby sister, Caroline, to go to sleep. She is such a sweet baby, sometimes I wish she were my own.

I don’t think I’ve ever told you about what I really want to be when I grow up. I mean there are lots of things I could be and stuff, but more than anything I want to be a mom someday. I want to be able to hold my own little baby and look in her face and know that she was mine. A little bit of me and a little bit of my husband (who ever that may be) mixed inside her. I can’t wait, I long for the time when I can sit down in my living room someday, writing in my diary maybe, and know that the little baby in the next room was mine. Mine, my baby.

That will be so awesome.

Mary Anne looked up from the pages, scripted by her 16 year old hand, and smiled. Another tear traced its way down her cheek. It had come true. After all these years of waiting, it had come true. It was her baby in the next room. Hers and Logan’s.

The baby was crying.

She’s awake! I must have fallen asleep. Startled, Mary Anne got up to quickly and knocked the stack of diaries off the end table. Gathering her bearings, she headed for her daughters room.

After changing the baby’s diaper, she carried her newborn to the living room and sat down in the chair with her. The diaries lay strewn about the floor, and she probably wouldn’t have paid much attention to them if it weren’t for the fact that one of them had landed upright, open like a book, and a piece of notebook paper had fallen from the center of it.

That’s strange, she though. She normally didn’t keep loose paper inside her diaries, for the very reason it would fall out and get lost. She grabbed the paper and sat back in the chair. Setting the note on the end table, she adjusted herself so her baby could nurse. With her free right hand she reached over and unfolded the piece of notebook paper, and read.

The feeling was hard to describe. Her breath caught in her chest, and a cold feeling rose up from her toes to her fingers. She had forgotten. How in the world had she forgotten?

Letting the note fall from her now numb fingers, she looked down at the baby nestled in her arms. She knew what she needed to do now, she was sure of it.

~~~~~~

Chapter 3 ~ Stresses

~~~~~~

“She can’t do this!” Claudia Kishi yelled as she slapped the palms of her hands on the table in front of her. “She’s crazy! She has absolutely lost her mind if she thinks we can pull this one off.”

“I know, I know.” Reece answered. “Maureen is crazy, but she is also the one who pays us.”

“I don’t care if she pays us a million bucks! There is no way; absolutely no way we can change all those uniforms by Sunday.” Claudia spouted, swiveling around in her chair to face Reece. “She is totally insane. Gone off the deep end that’s what I say.” Claudia raked her hands through her hair. Then resting her chin in her hand she plopped her elbow down on the table with a snort.

Reece stifled a laugh.

“What is so funny?” Claudia questioned.

“You look just like her when you do that,” Reece giggled.

“I do not, you freak!”

“No, you totally do! The hair, the hand, the snort.” Reece was laughing loudly now. Claudia smirked and shook her head. Leave it to Reece to find humor in a situation as dire as this. Reece’s laughter died off, her face turning serious.

“Look Claud, don’t worry about it, we can get Meghan to do it. You know she has been dieing for more work. She’ll get it done.”

Claudia nodded. It was true. Meghan Greade, their newest recruit had been itching to get her hands on some ‘real work’; to show Claudia what she was capable of. Claudia liked Meghan, she had potential. After all that’s why they hired her. But she was still so new, so young, Claudia hated to burden her with a job like this.

“I dunno Reece,” Claudia said, “I hate to hit her with something like this. She’s still in school, and…”

“Don’t worry about it, okay?” Reece cut her off. “I’ll take care of it. I know your busy preparing for the Stenson job. Just don’t worry about it. We can get this done. You’ll see.” Reece put a hand on Claudia’s shoulder and gave her a reassuring squeeze.

“Thanks Reece, you’re the best.” Claudia smiled. “What would I ever do with out you?”

“You never would have passed Comp 1,” Reece said with a giggle. Claudia swatted at her.

“Get out of here, you big oaf.” Claudia pushed Reece towards the door. “I have work to do, and so do you.” Reece laughed again.

“Just remember to thank me when you win your Academy Award!” She called shutting the door to Claudia’s office.

“Ha!” Claudia shook her head, laughing to herself. Reece had always been able to look at the bright side, no matter what the situation. Truth was, if it hadn’t been for Reece, their costume business would have gone town the tubes years ago. Reece was the details person, keeping everything organized, everyone on task, while Claudia was the big picture kind of gal, she could envision the end result before a project even got started.

She had met Reece in college, the first day of classes in fact. Claudia was sitting near the back of the room in her college composition class, biting her nails wondering how she would ever, ever make it through the year. Just the word composition made her stomach turn. She was even considering ditching class before it even started when a girl plopped down in the seat next to her, blocking her escape route. Claudia glanced over at the stranger. Her hair was dark, short, almost a boy cut, but what caught Claudia’s eye was the dark green highlights the girl had in her hair, this girl had spunk. Before Claudia could comment on the girl’s hair, the instructor walked to the front of the room and introduced himself. He couldn’t have been any older than thirty, with sandy brown hair and a goatee, definitely good looking. Claudia leaned back in her chair; maybe this class wouldn’t be so bad after all. The girl next to her leaned over and whispered in Claudia’s ear.

“This class is gonna bite,” she said, “but at least the prof’s a babe.”

There was no turning back after that, Reece and Claudia became fast friends. They were even able to room together the spring semester of their freshman year. Reece and Claud balanced each other perfectly. Reece was a business major, with a minor in art. She helped Claudia with the “boring classes” that were required for a degree. Math and English were never Claudia’s favorite thing. Claudia, the art major, helped Reece through periods of “artist block.” Being a detail person, Reece would sometimes feel overloaded with some of the projects she was trying to complete for her art classes.

Their friendship continued after graduation and lead them to where they are today, co-owning a costume design shop in LA. It was a dream come true for Claudia. Despite the fact they had to deal with Maureen, the “producer from heck” as Reece put it, their business was doing great. And if Claudia could land this Stenson job, things would be even better.

Claudia spent the next two hours working franticly on the sketches for Ryan Stenson, a local film producer who had been known to “make or break” stars. Claudia still couldn’t believe he had been interested enough in her designs to consider hiring her as costume designer for his next film. She just had to blow him away with these sketches, and the job would be hers. Bye, bye Maureen, bye, bye lousy student films, bye bye!

It was four o’clock when Claudia decided to call it quits for the day. She put her sketches in her portfolio, slipped on her jacket and stepped out into the main room of the shop. Reece and Meghan were already hard at work fixing the uniforms for Maureen’s show. Matt, their forth employee, was carrying in bolts of fabric from the storage room.

“I see the queen has finally decided to grace us with her presence,” he said jokingly.

“Ha, ha, very funny,” Claudia answered. Then turning to Reece she said, “How long do you think you guys will be here tonight?”

“I think we’ll stick around for four, maybe six more hours, at least,” Reece replied. “I don’t have anything else planned for tonight. Meghan?”

“Yeah, I’m game,” the young blonde replied, “no plans, and a wonderful homework free weekend!” Meghan smiled.

“Ahh, so goes the life of the poor and dateless,” Matt said with a laugh. Reece threw a handful of gold rickrack at him.

“You know,” Claudia spoke up, “you should be careful what you say. Just a couple years ago, you fit right in with us poor and dateless girl.”

“True, true,” answered Matt, “but then I met Kate, the love of my life, and things had never been the same since.” Matt grinned as he mentioned his fiancé.

“Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard it all before,” Reece replied, “now get your engaged butt back in that storage room, and order us a pizza while you’re at it.”

“Sure thing, my liege,” Matt bowed slightly, and returned to the storage room.

“You guys are crazy,” said Claudia.

“We know,” Reece replied, “and that is why you love us.” Claudia shook her head again.

“I’ll be here, tomorrow, at noon,” Claudia told them. “I can probably help with those uniforms then.”

“Claudia, don’t worry about it,” Meghan said. “You’ve got enough on your plate. Besides, I think Reece and I will get this done faster than you think.”

“Meghan, you’re the best,” Claudia replied, “remind me to thank you when I win that academy award!” Claudia laughed. She grabbed a candy bar from her stash under the sewing table and tossed it to Meghan. Reece scoffed.

“Hey!” she said, “where’s mine?” Claudia grabbed another one and tossed it to Reece.

“Now, don’t say I never gave you anything!” Claudia said, grabbing her purse and keys and heading out the door.

It was a cool evening, but Claudia decided to drive home with the top down on her convertible anyway. She loved feeling the wind through her long black hair. Claudia lived about an hour away from her shop, and pleasantly enough, much of her drive wasn’t on crowded Los Angeles freeways.

Claudia shared a small two bedroom house with a twenty-one year old actress named Kelsey. Kelsey’s work was mainly on commercials, and low budget student films, but she was a true friend, and Claudia enjoyed her company.

Upon entering her home though, Claudia found Kelsey in a bit of a panic.

“Claud? Is that you?” Kelsey called from the other room, after Claudia had stepped into the entryway.

“Yeah, its me.”

“Oh, I am so glad you are here,” Kelsey said, scrambling into the kitchen. She had her toothbrush in one hand, eyelash curler in the other, and she wasn’t wearing any pants. “The guy for the water heater is supposed to be here any minute, and Gary’s parents are in town tonight, and I didn’t know it, and I he’s picking me up in like, five minutes, and…”

“I hope you aren’t going out like that,” Claudia interrupted her. Kelsey looked down at herself.

“Oh!” she cried, “my pants!” And she was off again, probably to her bedroom to finish getting dressed. Kelsey was a sweetheart, but she was also a definite scatterbrain. Claudia didn’t mind though.

“Um,” came Kelsey’s voice, “did I mention the water heater guy is coming?”

“Yeah,” Claudia replied.

“I called him yesterday, I was surprised he could come by so quickly,” Kelsey’s voice said. “But it’s a good thing, ‘cause I am tired of this hot water-cold water- no notice thing.”

“Me too,” said Claudia, grimacing as she remembered her shower that morning, hot one minute, cold the next, then hot again.

“Hey, did I tell you that you got a letter today?” Kelsey asked, stepping into the kitchen. She was fully clothed this time, and she looked, as usual, smashing. Despite her absentminded tendencies, Kelsey could be ready to go and looking great in a flash.

“A letter?” Claudia questioned.

“Yeah, an actual letter letter, well at least that’s what it looked like. The envelope was hand written and everything so I just assumed… It’s on the counter by the microwave.” Kelsey told her.

“Very interesting,” Claudia said, resting her hand on her chin in her best Nancy Drew impression. Kelsey laughed. Claudia crossed over to the microwave to pick up her stack of mail. The doorbell rang.

“Oooh! Gary’s here!” Kelsey squealed, sliding across the kitchen floor in her socks. “How do I look?” She stuck a dramatic pose.

“Fa-hab-ulous, darling!”

The doorbell rang again.

“Just come in Gary,” Kelsey called, “I gotta find my shoes!”

“Sure thing,” Gary said swinging open the front door and stepping inside. “Hey Claudia.”

“Hey.”

Kelsey slid across the floor again, shoes in hand and kissed Gary on the cheek.

“Kay, um. I dunno when I’ll be back, so night Claud,” said Kelsey.

“Night Kels, night Gary. Have fun!”

Kelsey and Gary left, shutting the door. Claudia stood in the middle of the kitchen and sighed. Her stomach rumbled.

Food, she thought. Must have food. She walked to the fridge and the door bell rang again. It was the water heater guy. She showed him where the water heater was and explained the problem. Leaving him to work, Claudia returned to the kitchen. She flipped on the coffee maker and took a pot pie from the fridge and stuck it in the microwave. Her pile of mail was sitting on the counter. She paused. Pushing the start button on the microwave, she picked up her stack of mail and flipped through it.

A few bills, a couple of ads, and a letter. Address handwritten, just like Kelsey said. There was no name above the return address, but the city and state she recognized. Stoneybrook, Connecticut.

The word caught in her throat. Stoneybrook.

She didn’t know anyone in Stoneybrook, at least not anymore. Janine was in New Hampshire, Mom and Dad were in Florida. She hadn’t heard from anyone in Stoneybrook, not for a long time. Not since…

No, it couldn’t be. Claudia’s fingers felt numb and she could hear her heart beat in her ears. It couldn’t be…it just couldn’t be.

The timer on the microwave beeped. Startled, Claudia set the unopened letter on the counter and slid her pot pie onto a plate. Grabbing a fork and pouring herself a cup of coffee she picked up the letter once again and headed to the living room. She sat on the couch and set her food and drink on the coffee table. Turning the letter over in her hand, she slid her finger under the flap and tore it open.

The letter was hand written, on parchment colored paper with the initials MAB in a faint water mark at the top corner. She skimmed down the paper to see who wrote it.

Mary Anne. Claudia gasped. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and then began to read.

Claudia,

I know it’s been a long time, but I felt the need to send out this letter. It took me forever to track everyone down, and I feel kind of bad about it, but I felt this was important. I guess I’m writing you to ask if you would please come back to Stoneybrook. Just for a visit. I am inviting everyone, everyone from the old Baby Sitters Club. I would really like to see you again.

There is a lot I want to say, there is a lot I need to say. But I want to say these things in person. I have planned a reunion date for June 4^th. I hope that works for you. If not, I understand.

Again, I would really enjoy seeing you again. There is a lot we have to catch up on. Please call me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Mary Anne Bruno

Claudia let the letter fall into her lap. She leaned back against the couch and closed her eyes. She didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t even sure what to think.

“Ma’am.” Claudia sat up with a start. It was the water heater guy. “Ma’am, I’ve fixed your water heater, I don’t think you should have anymore problems.

“Thanks, uh thanks. If you just leave the bill in the kitchen, that would be fine.”

“Sure thing ma’am. You alright? You look a little pale ma’am.”

“No, no, I’m fine, just tired. Thank you.”

“Sure thing ma’am.”

Claudia leaned back again.

Mary Anne.

Claudia tried to remember the last time she had seen her, or any other of her high school friends. A lump formed in Claudia’s throat. She swallowed and took a deep breath. The pot pie and coffee forgotten, she got up and went to the phone.

~~~~~~~~~

©2003 Lindsay Renee Neumann