Sisterhood Of Lake Alice (20 page)

She was glad that she had thought ahead to arrange for the utilities to be turned on. Emily had called a man who worked for Adams Realty and offered Charlie Adams a generous bonus to get the house ready for her. For the favor, she promised to list the house with him when she was ready to sell. Charlie kept his promise and had all the utilities reconnected, the furnace checked and turned on, the lawn mowed, outside debris removed, and new locks installed. After he personally did the final check himself, he slipped the key under the back doormat, just where he had said.

By the time Emily unlocked the door, she was completely exhausted. She quickly put her few items in the old refrigerator. Walking through the once-elegant dining room, she saw that beautiful linen wallpaper hanging off the walls in strange patterns. In her father’s den, the walls were lined with musty books and cobwebs. There still seemed to be the scent of his pipe tobacco lingering in the room. Finally, she lay down on her father’s old leather couch. Within minutes, she was sound asleep, cuddled with her coat over her for warmth. That night her dreams were a mix of her childhood home, the Women’s Center, and her cozy little apartment in Waukesha.

It was almost ten o’clock the next morning when she awoke to the doorbell. As she stumbled to the front door, she realized that the noise was coming from the back door. To her surprise, three little girls stood there staring at her. The oldest girl, who seemed to be the leader, glared at her.

“My name is Melissa. I am ten years old. This is Katherine.” She indicated the child beside her. “She’s eight, and Sarah just had her sixth birthday last week. Who are you?”

Emily stared in stunned silence at the children.

“Don’t you know this house is haunted?” Melissa asked. “No one lives here. What is your name? We live next door with my dad, and he will call the police. Then you will be arrested! So, I think you had better run away fast. We also have a big dog named Harley, who will bite anyone that tries to hurt us.”

Emily adored the little girl’s spunky attitude. She told them that her name was Emily and that she owned the house. Many years ago, she had lived here. She had come home to fix it up and sell it. Then she told them that she hoped they could all be friends while she was living there.

Melissa told her that it did not make any sense. Why fix up a house and not stay to enjoy it?

Emily told them that when she was their age, a very nice boy had lived next door whose name was Warren Brooks. All three girls started laughing as they told her that was their daddy. They had moved back to Fergus Falls just before school had started.

Emily ran out the door grabbing the girls’ hands as they all ran across the backyards. Within minutes, she stood in the kitchen looking at Warren bent over the sink, finishing the breakfast dishes. As he turned to tell the girls to calm down, he saw Emily. He stood there speechless, just staring at her. Finally, they embraced. Both of them started talking at the same time. Warren said, “Welcome back home, Emily. I never thought I would set eyes on you again. It has been a long time, girlfriend. Are you home for the reunion?”

Emily explained that it was time in her career life to do some reevaluation, and Fergus Falls seemed as good a place as any to do that.

Warren told her that they had just moved back to town a few months ago. His parents wanted to sell the home because it was just too much for them to keep up these days. Warren had been living in Dallas, Texas, when his wife was killed in a car accident more than a year ago. He could not bear the thought of anyone else living in the Brooks’ house. It was also time for him to move on and leave the painful memories behind in Dallas. He bought the house from his parents and helped them move into the senior citizens’ apartments. He told Emily that the girls loved Fergus Falls from the moment they arrived. They were going to Our Lady of Victory, where he was shocked to see that there were still nuns teaching. He had taken a job working for Lincoln Bank, where he was making $25,000 less than in Texas, but here he was finally happy and actually looked forward to walking to work each day. There was no stress in his life. He worked every weekend to restore the house to its original beauty and enjoyed every minute of the hard work. Moving back to Fergus Falls was one of the best decisions he had ever made.

After their second cup of coffee, Emily left to start getting her house in order. Charlie was waiting for her on the front porch swing. He had prepared a list of all the repairs and work that needed to be done in and around the house. He just assumed that just like for her parents, money was no problem. As Emily looked over the long list of repairs and the costs to fix everything, she was in shock. She finally turned to Charlie to tell him that she did not have this kind of money. They worked for hours dividing the list into things that she would do on her own versus things that required someone with the skills needed to do the repairs. By noon, Charlie was promising to try and get the contractors to sharpen their pencils and lower their estimates, providing cheaper options for redoing the kitchen and bathrooms. Finally, he agreed to come up with some less expensive places to purchase wallpaper, paint, and flooring.

Emily did not want to dwell on the challenge she was facing just to get the house repaired enough to sell. She decided to take a break from her worries and treat herself to a late lunch at the Viking Café. As she parked the car on Lincoln Avenue, she realized that she had not changed out of the clothes she had worn all day yesterday and slept in all night. She quickly brushed her hair, putting it into a ponytail, applied some lipstick, and decided that was just going to have to be good enough for now.

Grace was walking out of Viking’s door when she bumped into a stranger. Emily nodded as she tried to move out of her way. At almost the exact same time, they both recognized each other. For a brief moment, they softly whispered each other’s name. Neither of them could believe whom they were seeing. There were no hugs or laughs as there had been with Lindy’s arrival. Instead, they stood simply staring at each other.

Emily spoke first. “I really never look as bad as I do right now. I just got into town last night.” As she looked at Grace in a beautiful sky blue sweater with perfect makeup and hair, she felt like a bohemian. Grace smiled and simply welcomed Emily home. She told her how happy she was to see her and thrilled that she was coming to the reunion. After a few uncomfortable moments, Grace invited Emily to join her and Lindy for dinner at Mabel Murphy’s that evening. Hoping that she could cancel out later, Emily agreed to meet them at 7:30 PM at the restaurant.

As Grace crossed the street to Claire’s, she was surprised that Emily was planning to stay after the reunion. She took it as a good sign. It was hard to believe that all four of them were back in Fergus Falls for the first time in twenty years. Tonight, Grace would do her best to talk them into singing at the reunion. Yes, this was a good sign, a very good sign indeed!

Chapter Seventeen
 

Dinner

Grace and Rebecca pulled into the restaurant parking lot just as a big black Lincoln was parking at an odd angle. Lindy got out of the car, and then they ran together for the first group hug of the evening. It was almost eight o’clock when Emily finally arrived. They were all convinced that she would not come but had ordered a second round of drinks just in case.

Emily had spent most of the afternoon scrubbing down the kitchen and bathrooms in the house. When she finally came back into the kitchen for a cup of coffee, she realized that it was almost seven o’clock. At first, she decided that she would just not show up for the dinner; no one would really miss her anyway. It had been twenty years with no contact with Grace or Lindy. She would call Grace tomorrow and give her some lame excuse. However, just thinking about the girls of SOLA gave her a deep longing to be with her girlfriends once again.

Emily realized that she did want to see if it was possible to recapture even a tiny bit of the friendship that they had shared so many years ago. Besides, she was starving. Quickly taking a shower, she braided her long blonde hair and grabbed the warmest sweater she could find. As she drove out to the restaurant, she almost turned around several times. She had no idea what she feared, but in the end, she knew a dinner with old friends was not going to kill her, so why not go and eat. She figured that she would discover that they had absolutely nothing in common anymore. Life goes on, and people change. Although she had to admit that Grace appeared to be the same sweet, loving woman she was when she was in high school. Perhaps only Emily had grown into a very different person. Oh well, one dinner with old friends is no big deal, she thought. I will have a drink, eat quickly, and leave before dessert.

*

As Emily walked into the restaurant, she immediately heard Lindy’s laugh coming from the corner of the dining room. She stood for a moment by the door just observing her three old friends. Grace was the picture of contentment and simple beauty. Rebecca looked smaller than she remembered and pale, but seemed to be enjoying Lindy’s story. Lindy was dressed in a bright purple patterned blouse, with her massive black hair piled on top of her head. She was waving her hands as she told her story. Emily felt a little happiness sneak into her soul as she watched them enjoying each other’s company.

Emily quietly walked over to the table and apologized for being so late. There was another brief moment of quiet before they all jumped up to give her a hug. They all began to talk at the same time. Emily laughed for the first time in a very long time. As she sat down at the table, she noticed that there was a bottle of Asti in a bucket. Grace had ordered it especially for their reunion dinner. They remembered their last evening together at Emily’s house overlooking Lake Alice. They sat under the weeping willow with their gifts toasting each other with a glass of Asti. It seemed only natural that this was how they would begin their private reunion.

*

Lindy started the conversation by giving a short version of her life story. She told them about loving being a nurse and caring for people, and that God had given her Larry as a special gift. As she spoke about their romantic engagement, wedding, and life together, tears filled her eyes. There was not a word said until she finished by telling them that she was now worth millions of dollars but with no idea how to spend it all. She would much rather have Larry alive at her side living above Daisy Dry Cleaners than all this money and a fancy condominium. Life alone was for the birds! She ended by telling them about the mini family reunion she had pulled off over at the Holiday Inn. If nothing else, she could use the money to spoil her parents and have a little fun with them.

Grace went next and talked about Claire. She told them that she had truly grown to love the business. She felt blessed to have been able to buy the shop and by how close a relationship she still had with Claire. She talked about her drama debut in
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
. They all laughed when she told them that she used “Singing in the Rain”
as her song for the audition. Grace also told them about the theater club, which gave her lots of enjoyment. She finished by telling them that she adored her life in Fergus Falls, where she felt fulfilled and respected.

Rebecca followed the others’ lead and told the girls all about Holy Angels Academy for Young Catholic Women of the World. She talked about her many trips to Europe and all of the honors that her choral groups had won throughout the years.

Emily was the only one who did not share her life story. They all realized that there was pain in her eyes and that she was not ready to discuss it with them. What they all knew for sure was that Emily was suffering, and they wanted to be there for her.

After a dinner of polite chitchat, Grace said she had an important question to ask all of them. She paused for a few moments and then asked if they would please consider singing together at the reunion dance. Grace told them that the band that had been booked for the dance had just cancelled yesterday. The best she was able to do was to rent a karaoke machine. A good friend and local radio announcer had volunteered to be the disc jockey if she could not find anyone else. She begged them to say yes, or a very special evening that she had planned for almost a year was going to be a terrible failure.

Lindy immediately said, “Well, little Gracie here is in a real pickle; and I, for one, am more than willing to help out. You know me, just get two people in a room, and I am ready to put on a show. Count me in, Gracie girl!”

Rebecca also happily agreed. She might even have some music that they could use for the evening.

All eyes turned to Emily, who was sitting there quietly trying to fade into the background. She finally said, “Ladies, I have not sung since we were all together in high school. I am afraid that my rusty voice will only ruin a perfectly wonderful trio. However, if you truly feel that I am needed, I will sing softly in the background. Nevertheless, I want it to be known that I have warned you all about my total lack of talent. So you have to accept me at your own risk.”

Grace was so thankful to them. She told them that this was really going to be a wonderful evening for all of them. They agreed to meet at Emily’s house the next morning to select their songs and then practice using the karaoke machine.

Tonight, they had all been overly polite to each other. There was none of the usual bickering or teasing that had gone on in the past. As each of them had given a brief overview of their life for the past twenty years, they all had decided to eliminate the most painful parts of their stories. A stranger listening to their conversations would have thought that they were four successful happy women in town for a class reunion.

As they left Mabel Murphy’s that evening, each of them felt that their special friendship was beginning to resurface. Yet at the same time, none of them felt comfortable enough to trust the others with the complete truth of how they had really lived their lives. They all had the same longing to be able to tell the others about their pain as well as their victories.