Hi everyone! Yes, I know we are far from Christmas but I didn't have time to write this fic last Christmas and I don't want to wait til the next one :)
This fiction contains mentions of drug abuse but no descriptions of it.
The Peanuts belong to Charles M. Schulz.
Please let me know what you think ;)
G.

OOO

Everything began on a Friday evening at the beginning of December. Linda and I had both come back from work, Jim was doing some assignment for the school and Abigail had just come home from the swimming pool. We were preparing for a quiet Friday evening dinner and TV when the doorbell rang. We all looked up, surprised: we weren't expecting any visit.
I opened the front door to reveal my sister Sally, looking unusually sad.
On some aspects, Sally had changed very much over the years. The child who only wanted to sit in front of the TV had developed a passion for travelling, sometimes scarying the hell out of me with her not-so-reasonable destinations. The child who had threatened authority was now working for social services, dealing with endangered teenagers and drug addicts and handled it well. As a teenager, she had still been obsessed with Linus but she went on with her love life after he left for college.
On other aspects, she was still the same old Sally. She wore her blond hair short and messy and liked colorful dresses and accessories. She had worn a gown on her wedding day only because our mother had threatened not to come if she didn't.
"What's wrong? Our parents...?" I asked. Sally didn't live in my neighborhood and it was unusual for her to show up like that.
"Oh, no, it's alright. I just got some disturbing news and I thought you should have known"
While talking, I had led her in the living room, where my family greeted her.
"What news do you have?" I asked after Abby was finished hugging her.
"You remember Pig Pen?"
"Pig Pen?" interrupted Jim incredulously.
"Yes, an old childhood friend of us... he wasn't very clean..." I explained.
"He's dead" Sally interrupted before my son had the time to answer.
"What?!"
"He overdosed, about a week ago" added Sally with a sad voice.
That wasn't really a surprise. I hadn't heard of Pig Pen after high school but he had already been using drugs back then.
"A colleague told me that today and I was... well we knew that he used drugs, right? But still..."
I sat beside Sally on the sofa.
"I am really sorry. I remember playing with him... we always thought it was funny, how he always managed to get dirty, Maybe he already needed help..."
"Well, I wanted to tell you. Now I must go home before Josh has to leave for his night shift"
"Working on the whole weekend?" I asked.
"That can happen when you marry a policeman" she replied.

OOO

I was very silent during the dinner. Linda and the children chatted quietly but my wife looked concernedly at me from time to time.
Yes, I hadn't seen Pig Pen in almost thirty years and we hadn't been best friends but still. I remembered us meeting at the park, at summer camp, with mutual friends and it was hard to imagine that that child had overdosed. But what had happened to the other children I had been playing and going to school with? I hadn't met some of them in years.
"It's snowing again" said Abigail looking out of the window "I'll go bring Nemo inside".
"I'm going to call Linus" I told Linda, putting my notebook on the small table in the living room. He was unusually online on Skype and I didn't even need to text him.
Linus had made a brilliant career at high school and college. Now he was working as a cardiologist in Rochester. He had married a colleague and had now a teenage daughter. He had given up his beloved blanket long ago but he was always the same old Linus: witty, insightful, always offering some philosophical oder biblical sentence or some absurd detail about Roman history only he could remember.
Linus had been my best friend during my school years and things didn't change after he moved for college and then went to Rochester. Linus had been my best man, I had been his. We talked at least once a week and knew everything about each other, even the most ridiculous things.
I started a call and Linus answered almost immediately.
"Hello, Charlie Brown!" he said with a bright smile "Hi, Linda" he added, spotting my wife beside me "How are you doing?"
Abby and Jim went to sit on the couch and greeted him as well.
"Hi, Linus. We are all fine but I got some disturbing news from Sally today and I wanted to tell you" I went on.
He was saddened upon hearing about Pig Pen.
"I didn't even know where he was and what he was doing. Well, of course I knew about the drugs back then. Hard do miss..." he said sadly "His closest friends tried to help back then. If only..." he sighed heavily.
"I didn't feel like texting you that news..."
"Of course not, thank you for calling."
"And what about you? How are you doing?" I asked.
"We are all fine, thank you. And we are both not working at Christmas, unlike last year... we are coming over for Christmas. Lucy is coming as well"
"Well then, Christmas at home!" said Linda with a smile "It was just time, you haven't come here for Christmas in three years"
"Yeah, Christmas has been sad without you!" added Abby.
"Christmas can't be sad with your father, he loves it" Linus chuckled softly.

OOO

"Dad, were you good friends with this Pig Pen? You look really torn" said Abby when the call with Linus was over.
"No, we weren't really friends" I replied "it's just... I was in this group of children who played baseball and went to school and to summer camp together... we spent our afternoons together and I'm realising I haven't seen many of them anymore in the past 30 years. I don't even know where they are now. And we were like always together". I failed to add that I wasn't exactly the most popular guy in the group and that I often had to spend my time alone. But even if I didn't get Valentine cards and even if Lucy laughed at me I had never really been bullied, the other children still wanted to play baseball with me and to spend free time with me, unlike in high school.
"Then why don't you organize a reunion?" asked Abigail excitedly.
"A reunion?" I asked.
"Yes! You know, contacting your old childhood friends and organizing a dinner or something"
I thought about it but it looked difficult: "I don't even know if they still live in Saint Paul and it is unlikely that they can come..."
"Abby is right, it sounds really nice and sweet! Besides, Linus and Lucy are already coming, that doesn't happen every year" reasoned Linda.
"It is useless to fight, dad" cut in Jim, who had been unusually quiet so far "when mum and Abby decide something, that something will be done".
He was right and I surrendered.
"Fine. But I don't know where to begin. I mean, I can't simply go where they used to live and look if their parents are still there"
"Dad, its 21th century. You can google them" snorted Jim "my word, you work with computers every day and you don't come to the idea"
"You know, I didn't grow up with computers, that's why I don't think about them..." I mumbled "And there is another problem: I don't really remember their names"
"Are you joking?" asked Abigail, shocked. "They were your friends!"
"Yes, but you know... there was this guy I played baseball with, we called him Schroeder but I don't know his first name. Of course I must've heard it but we just never used it. And there were these two girls, Peppermint Patty and Marcie... Peppermint Patty had a German surname I could never remember and Marcie... I'm not even sure that I've ever heard her last name."
"Well, if they're married they will have another last name anyway" reasoned Linda.
I smiled "Yeah... that's funny, they had both a big crush on me"
"Well, I hope they don't now" muttered Linda.
"A crush after 30 years? Not even Romeo and Juliet could last that long!" answered Abigail.
"Really, who on earth could remember all of these names after almost thirty years?" I asked, helpless.
"Linus!" Jim answered immediately.
I looked at him: "now, that's a clever idea!"
I noticed that Linus was still online on Skype and I started another call. Again, he answered almost immediately.
"Sorry for calling again, Linus, but a stubborn teenager just talked me into organizing a reunion with our old childhood friends and I need your help" I said grumpily.
He burst into laughter.
Now I would have to spend my weekend looking for old childhood friends. Not that I didn't want to meet them again, but I could already say that this reunion wasn't going to happen. They probably weren't living in Bloomington anymore, had other plans for Christmas or didn't want to come anyway.
"But that's a very nice idea and a good way to remember Pig Pen. I'm with you! What do you need?"
"Did you keep contacts with our schoolmates?"
"Huh, not really. Maybe I can help anyway?"
"What was Schroeder's first name?" I asked first.
"Edward" answered Linus without thinking a second.
"Yeah, that's it! Why the hell couldn't I remember that as well?"
Everyone laughed at that.
"I suppose you know the last name of Patty and Marcie as well?"
"Of course, Peppermint is Patricia Reichardt with 'd' and 't' and Marcie is Mary Johnson" answered Linus, again without thinking.
"Marcie's name was Mary?" I asked incredulously. Beside me, Abigal was noting all of the names on a paper.
"No, Mary Celia" explained Linus patiently "But maybe they're married and they have another last name".
"We will try anyway. Anyone else, dad?" asked Abigail.
"Well, there were Frieda and Franklin..."
"Frieda's last name was Rich. Franklin's was Armstrong" said Linus.
"I think I've never known these names" I commented.
"Now what are you going to do?" asked Linus.
"We are going to google all of them."
"And if you find them?"
"I think I'll organize something on December 23th or so. When are you coming back?"
"On the very same 23th" said Linus. "Let me know if you need anything else, I will tell Lucy myself"

OOO

After saying goodbye to Linus, Linda made hot chocolate for everybody, then we sat again on the sofa with hot mugs in our hands. Outside it was still snowing.
"Ok, let's start with this Edward Schroeder" said Abigail, tipping his name on the computer.