Friends Forever

winner, 7/26/09

Darlene sat on the side of her bed and read the letter for the third time. Memories flowed to her mind like leaves floating down a river, some disappearing swiftly with the current, some getting snagged for deeper contemplation. Next month marked twenty-five years since she had seen Janie and Nancy. She yearned for their camaraderie again.

Corresponding erratically over the years, they kept up-to-date with each others lives, but all three lived over a thousand miles apart. They had never found the opportunity to visit each other in all that time. Janie’s letter invited her to a reunion at their favorite beach on the anniversary of their high school graduation. Janie and Nancy had cooked up the plan by telephone. All that remained was for Darlene to agree to come. The invitation was rich with plans for seeing old haunts and surprising old friends who remained in the area.

Darlene glanced at her reflection in the dresser mirror.

“I don’t look too bad for a forty-three year-old widow with two teenagers,” she declared to her image.

The three girls had been best friends all through high school, attending dances together, triple-dating, going to basketball, baseball, and football games, but most of all going to the beach together. How they had loved the beach, meeting new families with their children and making new friends. They had played Frisbee and volleyball, collected seashells and gotten terrible sunburns together. They shared a genuine and one-of-a kind esprit.

Nancy was blond with a fair complexion. She was short, and a little on the hippy side with a slight inferiority complex that went with being a few pounds overweight. Janie was a redhead with the hot temper to go with it, getting them all in deep water more than once. She was thin and. wiry and quick to speak her mind. Darlene, in contrast, was dark with wild, curly black hair, an hour-glass figure, and an easy-going personality. She drew the boyfriends while Nancy and Janie scooped up the leftovers.

Darlene wanted to go with all her heart, but there were a couple of problems, one minor but one sort of major. She could probably farm out her teens to friends, but she had little control over the second problem.

………….

Ten days ago while in the shower, Darlene felt a lump in her left breast. It resembled a little pebble, hard and round. With weak knees she stumbled out of the stall without even rinsing. Sitting down on the toilet seat, wrapped in a towel, her teeth chattering from the cold air of the ac vent, a sour taste welled up into her mouth. Was it cancer? Would she need surgery, chemo, or radiation? She pictured herself without a breast and with a hideous scar.

“Get a grip, Darlene.” She spoke aloud to calm herself. Prayers flowed from her lips as fear squeezed her heart. After some time just sitting there, she composed herself and finished her shower.

When she was able, she called her doctor’s office to make an appointment. Darlene explained her problem to the receptionist, who scheduled an appointment for her to come in the next day. After seeing her doctor, she had a mammogram. Someone would call with the results the following day. The mammogram was inconclusive warranting another appointment for an ultrasound which also brought no answers. Her doctor then scheduled a needle biopsy.

………….

Feeling like a puppet on a string with her life on hold she now awaited those results. Then the letter came from Janie. For just a little while she forgot her immediate problem and reminisced about the past.

She saw the three of them in that beat up Volkswagen traveling the forty miles to the beach. Stuffed in like sardines surrounded by blankets, towels, beach bags, and a cooler, they sang along with Pat Benatar, Abba and Blondie. At the beach, they fought over who would carry what, with Darlene somehow always ending up with the cooler. She pictured them spreading out their blankets, renting a bright, colorful umbrella, kicking off their flip flops and racing to the water. After the heat of the stuffy car and the hot sun, the ocean felt like ice cubes. Darlene shivered and smiled, remembering how they trudged through the pulling sand and water to get beyond the breakers and ride the waves. Afterwards, starved, they ate sausage sandwiches slathered with peppers, onions and mustard. Then they drove the bumper cars, crashing into each other, screaming at the top of their lungs and acting like little kids.

Startled out of her reverie, Darlene heard the phone ringing.

“Hello.”

“Hello, Mrs. Davis, this is Diane at Dr. Howell’s office. He would like to see you tomorrow at 3 P.M. if that’s convenient.”

“Yes, I can be there.”

Hanging up the phone, Darlene’s dread returned.

“God will not give you anything you can’t handle,” she told herself.

With prayer and the help of her children, some of her easy-going personality returned to carry her through until the next afternoon.

At the doctor’s office she still had sweaty hands, but encouraged by her children she had reached a calm acceptance of whatever verdict was to come. She had told no one else.

Seated in front of Dr. Howell’s desk, her doctor handed her the pathology report from the biopsy. Glancing down, she saw the word “benign.” Dr. Howell had a big smile on his face as she looked back up. Tears of happiness and relief flowed down her cheeks. Her doctor came around his desk and hugged her.

Driving home she switched on the radio and to her surprise she heard Pat Benatar singing “Hit Me With Your Best Shot." She knew she had hit her best shot……and now she was going to the beach.