Back In The Old Town For Thanksgiving

By: CNJ

PG-13

2

Mary Anne:

It was sooo good seeing Sharon and Dad again! My tears spilled over as I hugged them both once I got their house on Burnt Hill Road.
"Ohhh, love, it's so good to see you again!" Sharon crowed, stroking my back.
"I'm...I'm so glad to see you again too," I wiped my eyes and followed Dad and Sharon into the kitchen, where we had tea and talked.
"We'll be picking up your grandmother and Dawn tomorrow at around one," Dad told me, stroking my hand. It was almost like the old days back in middle and high school when despite our busy schedules, we'd managed to eat together at least a couple of times a week. And tomorrow I'd see Grandma Baker and Dawn. We did a lot of catching up. Sharon had completed a project in her job as an architect that had been selected as the runner-up for a huge award. Dad had completed another case in his law firm. I told them about the mid-terms and about how great it was having Mona as a roommate at Staten U. and how we could see the Statue of Liberty from the dorm window and about how neat it was having Kristy close by at Fellowdean U.
"We'll eat at six-thirty," Sharon told me as I picked up my overnight bag and headed upstairs to my former bedroom.
"How about the spaghetti and meatballs that you like?" Dad asked.
"Oh...yes, I'd love that," I smiled at them, then headed up. It felt a little strange being in my old bedroom. I then headed into the bathroom, peed, then as I washed my hands, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror...a thirty-five pounds heavier me. I wondered if Dad and Sharon had noticed that I'd put on weight since I left for college. I could see that my face was plumper and my body was now on the chunky side. I'd had to buy new looser clothing now. Probably they did, but didn't comment. Abby had also e-mailed and said that she and Anna had also put on weight. The freshman twenty, she'd joked. In my case, it was the freshman thirty-five. I smiled wryly as I dried my hands, then headed to the room, took a book out of my overnight bag, put on my glasses and read a while.

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"MARY ANNE!"
"DAWN!" Those huge screams were my stepsister and I meeting at the airport when Dawn's plane landed from Arizona. We flew into each others' arms and hugged, laughing and crying.
"God, you look great," I gooshed. She did. She was really tan from the southwest desert sun and her blond hair was streaked even paler blond.
"So do you," Dawn told me. Sharon and Dad hugged her, then I saw Grandma Baker and waved. She came over and we hugged.
"Oh, how've you been, my darling Mary Anne," Grandma stroked my hair, tears welling in her eyes. Oh, it was so good to see her again! Bit by bit, we were talking a mile a minute as we left the airport. I'm so glad Grandma and Dad are at ease with each other now. Back in high school they hadn't been because when my natural mom died when I was a baby, Grandma and Dad got into a fight over who would raise me. I'd lived with my grandparents for a year and a half in Iowa, then at almost two, came back to Stoneybrook to live with Dad. Then when I was thirteen, Grandma called Dad and wanted to see me again, so I went and we had a re-union of sorts, since we hadn't seen each other in eleven years. It took a few more years for Dad and Grandma to work things out. In ninth grade, they were talking and all, but when Grandma had come, she and Dad got into an arguement right before the Thanksgiving dinner and I'd started to cry and told them both to grow up. Grandma, who had been on the verge of tears all that day, had started to cry too and she and Dad apologized. They felt bad about the fighting.
But it took a house fire the summer after my tenth grade year to really clear things between Dad and Grandma. An awful fire burned down our old old house here in Burnt Hill Road and we'd lost most of our things, including pictures and mementos of my mother. It had been a really frightening time for me and it was hard seeing Dad and Sharon upset. I'd gone nearly mute in numb fear and had terrible nightmares, then later cried ten oceans of tears and Dawn came over and comforted me and told me that oftentimes, good things come out of terrible events. I hadn't felt the truth of that, but now I was beginning to see it, especially since Grandma had come over and brought over more pictures of mementos of Alma, my mom and that brought her and Dad together again. Dad and Sharon managed to rebuild this house within a year. Dawn, who'd been living in California with her dad and stepmom, had then moved back to Stoneybrook for junior and senior years of high school.
On the way home, Dawn told us about the environmental group she was involved in at Tucson U. "...I'm majoring in archeology too. Mary Anne, you're majoring in secondary education, right?"
"Yeah," I nodded. "And minoring in psychology." I planned to be a teacher, but I figured if things didn't pan out in the teaching field, I'd be a psychologist or a social worker. Mona is majoring in veternarian sciences since she loves animals, while Kristy is majoring in business management.
"Claudia, Abby and Anna should be coming in tonight too," Dawn added. "I can't wait to see them."
"Me either," I put in as we pulled up to Burnt Hill Road. I glanced toward Claudia's old house and wondered if she was there yet. It sure brought back memories of when we used to have our meeting there since Claudia had been the veep and had her own line. We'd had the meetings in her room, about three a week, where parents would call us there with baby sitting jobs. We'd also pig out on junk food, talk, and have fun. It was great that the BSC could continue with our former charges. Jessi and Mallory, who are juniors in high school, are the two seasonal members, since they're away at school most of the year. Jessi had told me in her e-mail that two new members had joined a few weeks ago. So now there's seven members in the BSC Next Generation..Vanessa, Karen, Charlotte, Becca, Hannah, and the two new ones; she didn't know their names yet since they are sixth-graders at SMS.
Once we got inside, Dawn and I booked upstairs to talk while Dad, Sharon, and Grandma stayed downstairs and headed to the kitchen.
"This is like old times," Dawn told me as we sat side by side in her old bedroom.
"Yeah," I leaned on the bed. "Remember back in ninth grade when we were talking here and heard Dad and Grandma arguing?" How well I remembered that. I'd tried talking louder to drown it out, but Dawn had heard.
"You do remember that," Dawn seemed surprised. "I do too. You were having problems with Logan Bruno at the time and I'd mentioned that and you got this worried frown on your face." We both laughed. I remembered that too. Back in eighth and ninth grade, I did date a Logan Bruno. We'd started having trouble in the fall of ninth grade and grew apart. Part of it was that I'd been on the SHS newspaper staff while Logan had been into sports and he'd gotten rather possessive and I think felt a little threatened by my becoming involved in activities that didn't include him. Things went downhill that year until we finally broke up in April of ninth grade. It had been really painful for both of us and we'd both cried.
"I wonder where Logan is now?" I wondered. I knew that in eleventh grade, his family had moved to Bridgeport and he'd gone to Burkeview High for junior and senior year. Tenth grade was the last I'd seen of him. It's odd because until the summer after tenth grade Mona had gone to Burkeview, then in eleventh grade, came to SHS and joined the BSC.
"Who knows?" Dawn shrugged. "Who cares?"
"Oh...Dawn!" We both laughed then and Sharon called us and asked if we wanted to eat out tonight.
"YES!" we both yelled back and dashed down the steps.