Edge of Darkness

By: CNJ

PG-13

2: February 2023, Part 2

Mona:

The kids whooped when school was closed Friday and went back to bed. I myself was headed out to the vet's office up the street for an hour or so.

There weren't any new pet patients today, just a few that needed follow-up checkups and all. I wondered how Mary Anne and Owen were doing down in Georgia. They're coming back tomorrow.

I smiled softly as I looked at a picture from their wedding I had on my desk. I'd been the matron of honor and we'd both worn light blue. It had been a really beautiful wedding.

Mary Anne had been twenty-nine and three months pregnant with Tamara. They'd had a May wedding outdoors, a simple, but wonderful ceremony. They'd also combined two syllables of their last names to make Spiser out of Spier (Mary Anne's last name) and Geiser.

I smiled even more widely as I remembered in amusement that right before the ceremony, Mary Anne had been so nervous that her throat had gone dry and she'd gotten a terrific attack of the gulps. She hadn't been able to stop swallowing until she'd had a drink of water.

I'd known her and the rest of the BSC since eleventh grade. They'd been the first people I'd told that I was gay, since in the late twentieth century, being gay was considered a big deal and back then, there were a lot of people who thought it was this awful thing that had to be kept secret. Boy, am I glad we're out of those dark ages, I thought.

Of course, with the BSC, it didn't change a thing. Actually, Mary Anne was the very first person I'd told.

I remembered back when we lived in Stoneybrook and it was around March of eleventh grade. Mary Anne and I had been shooting some pool in this big teen hangout place called Aster and Dusker's.

We'd gotten to talking about love and sex and Mary Anne had told me that she'd gone out with this guy named Lester, was it? Or had it been a Logan...or a Larry? Well, anyway, Mary Anne had come close to losing her virginity with this guy in ninth grade, but had decided they weren't ready for sex. They'd broken up in April of ninth grade due to other, completely unrelated reasons.

It was March of eleventh grade when I'd slowly come out. Mary Anne had been a little surprised, but not shocked or anything. We kept playing pool, then went to get sodas.

We'd gone to college together at Staten U. in New York City and been roommates. In our senior year of undergraduate school and throughout graduate school, we'd rented a house with a couple, Greta and Wyser.

It had been great, just the four of us women sharing a house just a few miles away from the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Greta and Wyser are still good friends with Mary Anne and me. In fact, they live just up the block here in Hudson Ridge.

Kristy had also gone to college near us, at Fellowdean. She married a Carl Bineware when she was around twenty-four, the same year Claudia got married. Shortly after that was when Kristy moved to Minnesota.

Four years ago, Greta and Wyser got married and adopted a little girl, Vitra. Vitra's five and often plays with Alma and Zara.

It looked like more snow outside, so I closed up for the day and headed home.

Mary Anne:

The last day of the conference went by quickly. In the past week, Owen and I had met teachers from all over the world here in Atlanta. Atlanta, Georgia still made me a bit dizzy.

I've been to the west coast, all over the Northeast and to Canada, Kuwait, and Germany, but this was my first time ever in the Southeast States.

Georgia's very warm, this week's in the sixties and there's no snow of course. Some of the trees are even budding...in February.

I wondered if we'd gotten more snow in New York. After the last meeting, I called the girls on my cell phone.

"Hiii, Mommy!" Alma picked up.

"Hi, darling, how's everything?" I asked.

"Good. We're off school today because of snow. Zara, Vitra, and made a snow fort."

"Oh, how nice," I smiled. "I'll have to see it when I get home. Is Tam around?"

"Yeah..." Tam picked up. "Hi, Mom. How's the conference going? Boring or interesting?"

"Actually, honey, it's interesting," I told her. "I'm meeting teachers from all over the world."

We talked a while more before Tam groaned and told either Alma or Zara to "quit licking the last of the chocolate sauce off the pan..."

Owen talked to the girls some too, then we hung up and went back to mingle with the other teachers. Food had been put out and we took some and munched.

"Hey, they had the right idea bringing different foods from all over," Owen grinned. I nodded and bit into a kabob. For the next hour or so, all of us educators mingled. I even remembered enough German from my high school years and visiting Germany to carry on a conversation with teachers from Germany.

"Ohhh, God, maybe we need a little Yiddish there," Owen laughed. He also knew a smattering of German. We all ended up laughing. Nowadays, German and Yiddish, two very similar languages are mixed in together. It was like a small party, the bond between all of us being that we'd made educating the new generation our career.

I hit the snooze on the alarm when it went off the next morning. I suspect I hit it several times before finally waking up.

Owen and I hadn't gotten back until around eleven last night. We didn't have to catch the flight back to New York until around two. Still, we had to pack some things.

It was around ten-thirty when we got up. We packed quickly and headed down to grab a bite for breakfast...or maybe lunch. After lunch, we headed back to get our things and head to the airport.

I almost had my small compact laptop in my suitcase when I tripped over the nightstand and the back fell off the computer with a clatter. The batteries rolled out.

"Ohhhh...shit..." I muttered.

"Are you all right?" Owen asked.

"Yeah..." I muttered, plopping down and retrieving the batteries and putting the back on the laptop. I put it in my suitcase without further mishap. We then checked around to make sure we hadn't forgotten anything, then headed to the airport. In the cab, the cell phone rang with a brrrippp.

"Hello?" I picked it up.

"Oh, Mary Anne, I'm so glad I got a hold of you!" Mona gasped.

"Why?" My heart started to pound. "Is everything all right?" I hoped nothing had happened with any of the girls.

"Kristy just called me...it's Stacey...her son...Larry was in an accident."

"Oh...God..." I gasped and closed my eyes. "Oh, my God..." This was just about as bad. I felt tears well in my eyes. Owen peered over at me, concerned. Poor Stacey! "H-how's Stacey holding up?" I quavered.

"I...don't know, but they don't think Larry made it...something about falling through ice," Mona went on.

"Listen, I'm on my way to the airport now," I took a breath. "Tell Stacey to hang in there...all of us BSC will be there for her. I should be home in a few hours." Just then the call waiting on Mona's phone sounded and we had to hang up.

"What's..." Owen's eyes grew wider with concern and he stroked me.

"It's Stacey's son...something's really happened," I felt a flash of fear and fought back a fresh wave of tears as we arrived at the airport. Thanking the cab driver, we got our luggage and headed to our flight. Thank goodness there weren't any delays this time. I really felt an urgent need to get home as soon as possible.