CHAPTER 5: SONGS AND DANCING, ENGAGEMENT ANNOUNCEMENTS, MEMORIES OF LUCY, AND A DORMANT CRUSH WOKEN

As the evening rolled on, everyone was still having fun. Some had left early because they had to work early, but others decided to stay. Patty fired up the karaoke machine and announced that it was time to sing along to the hits. One by one, each person sang a song. Pig Pen drunkenly stumbled through a Led Zeppelin song, Marcie sang off-key a Celine Dion number, Frieda sang Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" and added some disco dancing to the performance, Franklin did a rap number, Sally sang a Britney Spears tune, Charlie did "Don't Stop Believing" from Journey with Linus, Rerun, and Schroeder, and Violet sang some Nora Jones to Charlie. He was impressed by his girlfriend's voice which was rich and soulful. The rest of the night was playing music and dancing the night away. All agreed that if Snoopy was still around, he'd be joining in on the festivities and being the life of the party.

It was around that time where Sally and Schroeder stepped up to the mic for their big announcement. Schroeder began, "May I have your attention please? As you all know, Sally and I have been together since high school. In fact many of us have been together since high school. We figured it was about this time that we announce to everyone here that while the reason we are here is because we are saying goodbye to one of our own, unpleasant as they may have been in life, but it is also a celebration of our friendship and the love we have for one another. But I especially love this woman right next to me." And he looked over at Sally, who looked at him with nothing but love and adoration for him.

Schroeder continued, "And it is tonight that I would like to announced that just before we came back here to Sparkyville, I had popped the question to Sally, and she said 'yes'." Everyone, except for Charlie, Linus, and Violet, gasped with excitement, as they already knew that they were engaged. "Now we haven't set a date for our wedding, yet, but I am here to tell you, when it does happen, you are all invited to our wedding, and we agreed to come back here to have it!" Everyone applauded the happy couple.

"A toast to Schroeder and Sally, on being engaged," said Patty, holding up a wine glass. And everyone toasted them. Schroeder and Sally sucked in the happiness for them, and they kissed each other.

Later on that night, most folks had left the union building, except for Charlie, Violet, Patty, her husband Mark, Linus, Audrey, Rerun, Tricia, and Roy. They decided to hang out a little longer. Frieda was helping Pig Pen out the door.

"I'm going to take our resident party animal here home," Frieda announced. "It's been great seeing you all again."

"You too, Frieda," said Charlie. "And we'll see you at the funeral." And Frieda and Pig Pen left.

"I actually wondered if Frieda and Lucy remained best friends through high school," said Violet.

"Well, not even Frieda was safe from the misery of Lucy," said Linus. "While there was no big falling out like what happened with Charlie and her, or even a girl fight, they just drifted apart over time."

"Frieda told us later that she just had enough of Lucy's negativity," added Charlie. "While it didn't end in some dramatic fashion, or, like Linus said, a big blow-up like what happened with me and Lucy. They just kind of slowly went their separate ways. Frieda wanted to be around more positive people, and Lucy was anything but!"

"I remember when those two were joined at the hip, especially on the ball field," said Patty.

"That reminds me, Charlie," said Violet. "What ever became of the team after I left?"

"Well, again, Lucy happened," said Charlie. "It was around 8th Grade. We were playing Tricia's team again."

"Ah yes, I remember that day," said Tricia.

"Tricia and her team were creaming us, as usual," Charlie began. "And around the ninth inning we had actually caught up to their team."

"We were pretty much neck-and-neck," added Tricia. "Chuck's team had gotten marginally better than they had been in the past."

"Anyway, we needed a run to tie the score," Charlie continued. "Snoopy was first up to bat. He managed to get to third base. If the next batter was to make it to at least first, the score would have been even. Unfortunately, Lucy was the one who went after him. And we all know how serious she took the game. Anyway, when she went up to bat, she didn't even swing the damn bat! Of course she struck out and she was our last out! And Tricia's team won another game over us. You know what her excuse was? She figured that since we lose so many games anyway, why bother to even try anymore? No sun getting in her eyes, no fumes coming from her glove, none of those stupid excuses she usually made. It was like she even gave up on that. So before the team started blaming me for the loss, even though I wasn't at fault that time, I just told them that before they even quit on me, at least let me beat them to it."

"And the team split up that day," Linus finished, "all because Lucy didn't even want to try to win the game. Charlie had finally had enough of the incompetence."

"While I wasn't great by any means," Charlie said, "I, at least, tried. I may had failed plenty of times, but I put in the effort. All of you did, except for her. Take, for instance, the games the team won when I wasn't playing. It was like Lucy was purposely trying to sabotage me. When you played without me, she was cooperative, wasn't she?" Everyone nodded. "That's what I thought. She had it out for me. She was trying to ruin me even on the field. I swear had she put in that same effort when I was there, we may have had a much better showing. But nope. Charlie Brown can't win at anything. And with her, I had to remain the loser, or her life didn't have any meaning. But then, I just had enough. I pretty much said to hell with it!"

"I never thought you'd quit playing baseball, Charlie," said Violet, caressing him softly as she sat in his lap.

"Well I still watch it on TV, and I did play some softball with my restaurant employees against a rival restaurant in Vallejo, but other than that, yeah I was done."

"I think it's fair to say that Lucy was responsible for a lot of misery around here," said Patty, to which everyone agreed.

"No one was safe from her wrath," added Rerun.

"Well I may have been the only one who never harbored animosity toward her," said Tricia. "We hung out occasionally, but we were never close enough to be enemies. Sure, she got on my nerves quite a bit, but never enough to warrant me hating her with a passion."

"You were one of the lucky ones, Tricia," said Linus.

"Thibault filled that void with me," Tricia joked.

"What is the runt up to?" asked Patty.

"About 5 to 10 in the pen for robbery," Tricia responded.

"I may have seen him when I was locked up," added Rerun. Everyone laughed. It was the end of a fun night.

Later at Frieda's apartment, she was bringing in a still-drunk, but now sobering up Pig Pen. He had his fair share of booze and beer to last a week. She didn't mind, as she and he became friendlier to each other over the years, especially since he was no longer dusty and dirty as he was as a kid. Frieda was petite, yet still curvy. She had an hourglass figure that drove the local men wild. She had gone on plenty of dates, but never got serious with those guys, as they were out for one thing and she was too smart for that. Her red hair was still curly, but now longer than it had been when she was younger.

"Okay, Matty, sit here on the sofa," she said to Pig Pen, who just plopped on the sofa with a big sigh.

"Thank you for helping me, Frieda," said Pig Pen. "I don't usually drink this much."

"It's all right, Pig Pen. Everyone had a lot to drink tonight. It was a wild night, to say the least."

"How come you don't have a boyfriend of your own?"

"Well, I haven't found the right guy yet. How about you?"

"Haven't found the right woman yet, either."

"Anyway, I need to get out of these clothes. I'll be right back. Feel free to turn on the TV."

Pig Pen turned on the TV and watched a funny sitcom repeat that was on. He laughed at the show. He then asked Frieda, who was in her bedroom, "Do you have a roommate here at all?"

"I did for a while," Frieda yelled from her room. "She moved out about a month ago. Said she was going down to New Orleans for 'job opportunities', some shit like that."

"What job opportunities?"

"She was going to work at a B&B on the strip. I told her there are plenty of those here in town."

"So, you're looking for a roommate again?"

"You know anyone?"

"I can check around the office if any of my colleagues are in need of a place to stay."

"That would be awesome, Matty." And Frieda came back in wearing a pink crop top and a matching small pair of shorts. She had long socks on her feet. Pig Pen was beside himself at the sight of her. He knew she looked good, but now she looked really good to him. She sat close to him, putting her arm around him.

"So what are you watching?"

"Some classic sitcom. Nothing special."

"There's a classic horror movie on 37. You want to watch that with me?"

"Absolutely!" And they sat and watched the movie. Frieda cuddled up to Pig Pen, who blushed with happiness. He was happy to be with her for the night.

NEXT CHAPTER: AN UNEASY MEETING