Chapter 2
Dorothy Ann hadn't realized she was sleeping until she awoke to the banging of a clock, which was odd, since she didn't own anything that would make that sound. As she sat up, wondering if she'd changed the alarm tone on her phone, she saw Wanda standing in the room with her. Only something was different about her – Wanda was wearing a long, white robe and an ethereal glow. She looked almost angelic. I definitely made the right choice in throwing out that soup. Dorothy Ann thought. Besides, that can't be Wanda; this has to be a dream.
"Beauty sleep's over, princess." Wanda said. It was definitely Wanda.
"How did you get in here?" Dorothy Ann cried. "What's up with the weird robe? Are you glowing?"
Wanda came closer to her, almost floating. "I'm the Ghost of Christmas Past."
"What the hell?" Dorothy Ann swatted at Wanda, but it had no effect. "This is bullshit. You know I hate this story."
"Too bad, Scrooge. You're wasting your life away, and I'm here to save you, like I always have." Wanda folded her arms.
"You've gotten me into more trouble than anyone." Dorothy Ann protested.
"And it's my job to remind you of how fun that was." Wanda insisted.
"Okay, all right, look. I've been working too hard. I've neglected you. I'll go to dinner with Carlos. Are you happy? Can we be done?" Dorothy Ann threw her hands in the air.
"Nope, sorry." Wanda grabbed Dorothy Ann's arm, and suddenly the two were transported back to Walkerville Elementary School.
"What the hell is this?" Dorothy Ann had a feeling she'd be asking that a lot. "I told you – I'll go to the stupid dinner."
Wanda looked disapprovingly at Dorothy Ann. "You have to trust the journey."
"Since when have you of all people trusted the journey?" Dorothy Ann demanded.
"This is the one time this won't be about me, so you'd better enjoy it." Wanda threatened.
"Damn the journey." Dorothy Ann muttered. "Fine. What are we looking at here?"
"Shut up and watch." Wanda pointed at the school, where Dorothy Ann and her friends ran out into the playground for recess. They were in fourth grade, she knew – she'd still wear pigtails for the rest of that year, but she was taller than Carlos, much to his chagrin. Dorothy Ann tried to remain skeptical, but there was something moving about seeing her younger self laughing and talking with her friends like nothing was wrong – because nothing was. Here, they hadn't been jaded by relationships and puberty, the grind of high school and the strain of becoming adults. Here, they were just children with dreams. Dorothy Ann couldn't help but look at them and then see them as the adults they'd become. "Don't do that." Wanda said. "Just watch."
"How do you know what I'm thinking?" Dorothy Ann whispered.
"Magic!" Ralphie yelled from the playground. Dorothy Ann startled a bit, then she realized that the children were talking about Santa Claus and other things Ralphie insisted on believing in far past the point of reason.
"Don't you think you're a little old to believe in magic?" The young Dorothy Ann asked. "Isn't it simpler to believe that the parents are just giving us presents and pretending to be Santa?"
"But where's the fun in that?" Ralphie asked.
"Where, indeed." Wanda, The Ghost of Christmas Past, remarked. Wanda had an annoying habit of co-opting Dorothy Ann's speech patterns. Dorothy Ann could never tell if Wanda was mocking her or not.
"Don't make fun of me." Dorothy Ann felt childish to admonish her friend like this, and somewhat alarmed that she was so defensive. "Are you seriously going to show me everything I've ruined for everyone?"
"You didn't ruin it. Ralphie's mom told him, but he didn't believe her. Remember?" Wanda replied. "You just stopped believing there was wonder in the world a long time ago."
"You've got to be kidding." Dorothy Ann sighed. "I of all people appreciate the wonder of the world. I'm the one that's studying the mysteries of the universe. You're -"
"Actually enjoying them." Wanda interrupted. "Studying isn't the same thing as just letting things be magical." Wanda grabbed Dorothy Ann's arm again, and before she could wrest it away, they were watching the same eight kids hanging out in Arnold's living room. It was two years later, and they were in sixth grade. Arnold's house was the only one that didn't lose power in the biggest blizzard the area had ever seen.
Dorothy Ann turned to Wanda. "Wait, is this the Blizzard of '96? Wasn't that in January?" Dorothy Ann asked.
"Picky, picky." Wanda waved her off and gestured toward the scene. Everyone was antsy with cabin fever, but managing to keep it under control, except for one.
"Let's go sledding!" Twelve-year-old Wanda cried. "You have sleds, don't you, Arnold?"
"I guess, maybe a few." Arnold's voice cracked and he turned red.
"Let's not." Tim offered. "Let's stay in here where it's warm."
"Ooh, warm." Wanda considered it. "Warm but boring. Come on, where's your sense of adventure?"
"Somewhere underneath 30.7 inches of snow." The young Dorothy Ann quipped.
"You could've said three feet." Carlos argued.
"That's 36 inches, dummy." Dorothy Ann retorted.
"Come on, you wimps!" Wanda pleaded. "It's an adventure out there! It looks like Christmas." No one looked impressed in the half-second that Wanda paused, so she began to sing, dragging out the first words until they were both unbearably long as well as off-key. "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."
"No!" The rest of the group cringed.
"Christmas is over!" Dorothy Ann yelled louder than she intended.
"Wow." Ralphie remarked to Tim. "Harsh."
"If we go sledding, will you stop singing?" Arnold pleaded. "Sleds are in the garage."
Dorothy Ann felt frozen in place as she watched the gaggle of awkward kids move toward the garage to get sleds. She was mesmerized by how vivid these memories were. She'd half-forgotten them before, and now that she was watching herself and her friends again, they came rushing back. She felt tears well up in her eyes. "I had a really great time that day." She said quietly. "I flirted with Carlos and threw snowballs and no one ended up with frostbite or hypothermia."
The Ghost of Christmas Past didn't say anything. Maybe she wasn't Wanda after all.
"Okay, show me what's next." Dorothy Ann grabbed Wanda's arm.
"I knew you'd come around." Wanda smiled. This time, the group was much older – it was while Dorothy Ann was in grad school, as a matter of fact – and sitting around in Carlos's basement. They didn't look quite as fresh and innocent. They were harried and stressed with the pressure of making lifelong decisions. They'd dated, broken up, and betrayed each other.
"Aren't you supposed to show me good things?" Dorothy Ann asked. Wanda stared straight ahead, and Dorothy Ann followed suit.
Keesha squared her jaw. "Let me get this straight. You're too busy for any of us."
"I'm going to have to focus on grad school." Dorothy Ann protested. "Then, once that's done, I can hang out with you again."
"How do you know you won't have time for us in grad school?" Arnold asked. "It seems pretty premature for you to decide now that you won't see us for five years."
"You don't understand how rigorous PhD programs are." Dorothy Ann sighed. She'd tried explaining this to them before.
"You realize that you're not the only one with things going on, right?" Keesha started. "I've been busting my ass writing bullshit and calling it 'journalism.'"
"I'm in law school." Arnold pointed out.
"Law school doesn't trump everything!" Dorothy Ann sighed. "You don't understand – there's coursework, research, teaching... it's all so much. I just – I just need a break, okay?"
"Don't take too long." Phoebe said softly.
The scene faded away, and Dorothy Ann was back in her darkened bedroom. The juxtaposition of what was and what had become was stark. She could see clearly – without the intervening years fading the happy memories – just what she'd thrown away. Wanda's white robe seemed to shine especially bright against the deep dark of Dorothy Ann's room. "I probably blew it with everyone, didn't I?" Dorothy Ann asked quietly.
Wanda put her hand on Dorothy Ann's arm, and they were transported out of Dorothy Ann's apartment once more. Dorothy Ann didn't recognize the room they were in – it was someone's house, festively decorated for Christmas. "Where are we?" Dorothy Ann asked. The front door opened without so much as a knock, and her friends streamed in. Maybe it was because it was Christmas, but the sadness and weariness wasn't on their faces.
"You know how hard it was for me to make this work," Wanda announced as she entered, her arms full of presents. "What with work and all."
"Stop bragging that your job is cooler than everyone else's." Ralphie argued. "How many fugitives did you catch today?"
Wanda made a non-committal noise and put a bottle of wine down on the counter.
"What does she – you – what do you do?" Dorothy Ann asked the ghost.
"Oh damn, you're out of touch." Ghost Wanda shook her head.
"Everyone's busy," Keesha said. "The Daily Scoop -"
"Stop it." Ralphie interrupted. "Stop holding your success and your cool jobs over everyone."
"Jealous much?" Wanda snarked to Keesha.
"No more talking about work!" Carlos, who was apparently hosting, came out of the kitchen. "It makes Ralphie uncomfortable."
"Thanks." Ralphie was insincere. "Carlos, where's your girlfriend?"
"She's got some sort of flu that she didn't want to share." Carlos said, before turning to Tim. "What about -"
Tim sighed. "She's not coming." He didn't provide any explanation.
Dorothy Ann looked at Wanda. "What's going on?" The ghost didn't respond.
"Oh." Arnold said. "And what about D.A.?"
"She blew me off. Again." Carlos explained. "Why do I even try?"
"She'll come around." Phoebe insisted. "She has to."
"Well, we're glad you're all here." Keesha began. "2016 sucked ass, so here's hoping 2017 is a little better." She raised a glass.
"To 2017!" The group toasted.
Dorothy Ann watched the group for a while to figure out what was off. She'd managed to go to all the weddings, so she wasn't surprised there. Phoebe wasn't drinking, which was odd, but that wasn't it. There was something going on with Tim. He was clearly depressed, and no one was talking about it. Right as Dorothy Ann was about to ask Wanda what was going on, she saw it – Tim wasn't wearing his wedding band.
"Bingo." Wanda said.
"What happened?" Dorothy Ann asked.
Wanda shrugged. "Tim and Janet were never right for each other."
"How did I not know?" It was a rhetorical question. Someone had to have told her this last year, but she apparently hadn't cared enough to remember. But here, watching her friends, she had to care. As they talked over dinner, Tim loosened up and was laughing again, though not nearly as much as he used to.
Carlos raised his glass. "To Dorothy Ann, wherever she is. May she get tenure and start hanging out with us again."
"You know she won't." Ralphie remarked. "First she was busy getting into grad school, then it was grad school, and now it's tenure. She's written us off."
"I have not!" Dorothy Ann yelled, but none of her friends could hear. "Dammit, Wanda, take me home! I'm done!" The dining room faded into darkness, and Dorothy Ann knew she was back in her apartment. She couldn't believe that some of her friends were giving up on her. It wasn't fair. She grabbed Wanda by the arms, looking her straight in her oddly glowing face. "Why did you show me all this?" Dorothy Ann demanded.
"I just showed you what happened. It's not my fault things ended up the way they did." Wanda wasn't worried by Dorothy Ann's anger.
"It's not mine, either." Dorothy Ann's anger was mixed with sadness, and she felt pangs of regret. "They don't understand. Neither do I, I guess."
"Good." Wanda said. "But you're still going to be visited by two more spirits."
Dorothy Ann felt too emotionally exhausted to argue, so she sat down on her bed. "Fine."