Chapter 4

Pam handed the last dinner plate to Susanne and wiped her wet, soapy hands on her jeans. "There, that's the last of them," she said, collapsing into the nearest chair. Susanne dried it off and carefully placed it in the cupboard, then hopped up on the counter, facing Pam.

"Where's Bets and Katrie?" she asked.

"Upstairs unpacking Betsy's things, I think," replied Pam. "You know, it really is great to be all together again."

"Yeah, I suppose it is," Susanne said, gazing out the kitchen door window. "Almost feels like we've never been apart."

"So says you," said Pam. "You're life must be pretty busy what with the restaurant and all, but as for me, I've felt every minute of these past two years. Time is like molasses when you live in a small town like me."

Just then they were interrupted by a shuffling noise at the doorway. They turned to see Jess, her eyes red, cheeks dirty, and a deep frown on her face. The black and white cow slippers on her feet were what had made the noise, and now it was resumed as she pulled out a root beer from the refrigerator and sat down at the table. "What's wrong, Hun?" Pam asked quietly.

"I think me and Alex are over. He asked me to marry him, I didn't say anything, he took that as a 'no,' and signed off-line. My life," here she paused to take a big gulp of her drink, and dropping it heavily on the table, said, "sucks."

"Alex?" asked Susanne. "That guy Katrie just came in here raving about? Oh, I'm sure you two aren't over. If a guy says he's in love with you, and wants you to marry him, he'll definitely fight to get you. If he doesn't, then he wasn't worth it in the first place."

"That's right, Jess," replied Pam. "None of us know Alex, but I can't believe that you'd stay with a guy longer than two weeks if there wasn't some kind of connection. Besides, he's in D.C. Let him come back, then you can talk and straighten this whole thing out." This comment produced a laugh from the sad one.

"Neither one of you has any idea what he's like, or how are relationship is going, or even if it was ever going anywhere in the first place," Jess said. "You just immediately assume that I'm in love and really do want to marry this guy."

"Well, is that true?" Susanne asked, jumping down from the counter. The three women were quiet for a minute, waiting for an answer.

"Yeah, I suppose it is." With that, Jess poured the rest of her root beer down the sink and started walking out of the kitchen. At the doorway, she paused, and turned, a suspicious look on her face. "Hey, you two aren't being all supportive like this just because you want to be the maid of honor at my wedding, are you?"

Susanne looked sheepish. "Maybe."

@*@*@

Katrie tossed the empty duffel bag into a corner of the room and collapsed backwards onto the bed. Betsy stood by the bed table, placing old pictures and knickknacks around a lamp. "Thanks for helping, Katrie," she said, wiping dust off a frame with her shirt. She looked at the picture it held for a moment, then threw it next to Katrie. "Remember that"

Katrie, who up till then had been covering her eyes with her arms, sat up and studied the picture. The five friends were in it, but Susanne looked like she was in the middle of a sentence, Jess was looking sideways at Pam, who was blurred because she had just run out from behind the camera, and Katrie looked stiff as a board, staring straight ahead with a plastic smile on her face. Betsy was the only one who looked okay. "Sure, I do," she replied. "Wasn't this my coming-home party, and then we decided to combine it with your going-away party? Must have been, because you left in the summer, but I'm wearing a long-sleeved shirt to cover up my IV tube."

"Yep, agreed Betsy. "That was the last time we were all together. I took about four rolls of film, and that was the only one where we all kind of managed to look at the camera at the same time." Katrie chuckled and laid back down while Betsy sat next to her.

They were silent for a few minutes, remembering. The group had gathered in Chicago, to welcome Katrie home from her most recent hospital stay. They sat around for a while; microwaving popcorn, talking, watching old movies, having popcorn fights, and making fun of the movies, all at the same time. After about 3 hours of this, Jess, Betsy, Susanne, and Katrie tried to dance like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers while Pam looked over al their appointment books to find a day in the near future when they could throw Bets a going-away part. Katrie sent Susanne spinning across the room so that she flipped over the arm of the couch and flopped down on the cushions and when Pam had gotten over her hysterical laughter and caught her breath, she dropped the bombshell. There were no days that everyone was free to have a party.

Ten minutes passed, in which there were many sad exclamations made by everyone and even more attempts to double-check Pam's results. Finally, they decided to combine the parties right there and then, and just send Betsy's presents to her via FedEx. Then, for the next hour they experimented with Betsy's fifteen second timer on her camera, and realized that if there was one thing they couldn't do together, it was pose for a group picture. many more hours passed, until they all piled into Katrie's station wagon and drove to the nearest beach to watch the sunrise. It was the perfect end to the perfect last fling.

"You know, I think Jess has every single Astaire movie on tape," said Katrie. Betsy grinned an evil grin, and she got the hint. "And she also has a couple couches downstairs."

"Well, then I hope the others have their dancing feet on tonight," Betsy replied. Then she slapped her thighs and jumped up. "How about we go see? Come on, we can dance down." She held up her hands, inviting Katrie to stand up herself.

Instead, she raised her head off the mattress and stared at Betsy. "Only if I can lead," she said.

"Oh, but of course, Madam," Betsy assured her. "After all, I haven't done this in two years. If I led, we'd be in serious danger of injury." They laughed again. A moment later, they were making their way down the hallway, crying out every few seconds when one stepped on the other's foot.

@*@*@

"Hey, guys" Jess' meek voice echoed in the large barn. IN answer, the sleeping puppies at the other end opened their eyes and yawned, the horse stamped her foot, the cat jumped down from the stable door it was balancing on, and the chickens scratched the ground beneath them.

The woman who stood before all these animals was a complete opposite from what Susanne and Pam had met with twenty minutes ago. After a quick shower and a good head massage, she silently yelled at herself for breaking down like that and threw on some riding clothes. Having taken ten slow, deep breaths and adopting everything her dear friends had said to her as faith, she sneaked outside, and here she was. Standing there with her wet hair pulled into a tight bun, and in an old T-shirt, jeans, and boots, she felt very confident. Alex would call tomorrow, everything would get straightened out, and they would live happily ever after. Together. Forever. What a great thought.

@*@*@

Fifteen minutes later, Katrie was washing out her nebulizers, the plastic mouthpieces she used to inhale her medicine, when she glanced out the kitchen window and spied a dark figure riding away on a horse. "Hey, I think I found Jess!" she cried out. Turning off the water, she shook the pieces in her hand until they were sufficiently dry. The others entered the room, then, and looked around. "So where is she?" asked Susanne.

"Out there." Katrie turned around and pointed with one of her free fingers. "She's riding that horse of hers. Socratesa, I think."

"She's riding in the dark?" Betsy went to the screen door and looked out.

It's not that dark out there," replied Pam. "The moon's shining bright, and it's a while lot better for her to be doing that than sitting in here sobbing her heart out."

"She's probably already done that," said Katrie. When the dancing fools had arrived downstairs, Pam and Susanne immediately filled them in on all the happenings of their hostess' love life. They all felt bad for her, and wanted to help her deal with it by having a fun- filled night with her friends. Problem was, she wasn't in her room, which is where they assumed she would be. "We all know that she was never one to brood long over a guy. I'm sure she'll be absolutely perfect in a day or two. Especially since this guy will call tomorrow and clear everything up with her."

"Hope you're right, Kat," Betsy murmured, still staring at the figure trotting away under the stars.

"If she isn't, and this guy doesn't call, then he was never nay good anyway," replied Susanne. "I swear, if Ash took my silence as a 'no' every time, I don't think we would've made it past our second date."

"You're being way too rash, Suze," warned Betsy. "I think we should give Alex just a little benefit of the doubt."

"Let's not talk about it anymore," suggested Pam. "We don't know the whole story, and we shouldn't ask Jess about it right now anyway. Why don't we move on to happier subjects? Like Katrie's wedding." They all turned towards her, Susanne and Pam smirking happily, and Betsy with a look of pure astonishment on her face. Katrie, who had been filling her nebulizers up with medicine, laughed nervously.

"Wedding?" she cried. "Since when are you getting married? And to whom?"

"I told you about Paul, Bets," Katrie replied. "Didn't I? He asked me to marry him about six weeks ago. There wasn't any time to write you a letter, because you would've been home before it got there."

"And, what, you just forgot about it until now?"

"Um, well, yeah, I guess." This admittance took Betsy aback, but she quickly recovered and rushed to hug her friend.

"That's great, Katrie!" she cried. "I'm so happy for you! When's the ceremony?"

"In three weeks. August fourth. We wanted to be done with our honeymoon and everything before the new school year begins. I can't wait."

"Let's see, the last time you wrote me about Paul....." Betsy paused, thinking aback. "You were sure that you loved him, but now so sure if you were in love with him. This is quite a change."

"OK, OK, you two," broke in Susanne. "I'm sure we'll hear the whole story tonight, so don't go over it now. TO celebrate, though, I think Katrie should get to pick the movie tonight, and when Jess comes back, we'll break out the orange sodas and toast her. It might be better with wine, but as we all know, our hostess hates alcohol."

"Great idea, Susie," replied Katrie. "I just hope she stays out for another hour, 'cause I still have treatments to do."

"Well, hop to it, girl!" ordered Pam. Katrie started skipping out of the room, when she felt the need to stop her. "Oh, by the way, what movie are you picking?"

She whirled around, a wicked glint in her eye. "Why, Kiss Me Kate, of course!"

The whole house echoed with three loud, long groans of disgust.

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