A Promise Kept

A Promise Kept
Fumbling for the obnoxious sound that had invaded his dreams, Richard reached across the bed moving only the part of his body necessary to slap the button to make the noise stop. Five-thirty in the morning isn’t a pretty time for most people to rise and begin their day, but Richard really didn’t mind it. He was a morning person and liked to watch the world around him slowly wake up.
Sitting at the breakfast table, Richard admired the early March sunrise as he raised his mug of hot coffee to his mouth and took his first sip. This was a beautiful moment for Richard. There was nothing like sipping his coffee each morning while letting it gently awaken his senses. As he drank the dark liquid and ate a blueberry Pop-Tart, he looked through the mail he had laid on the table late last night after returning from a basketball game. He usually glanced at the mail before tossing it on the table, but not last night.
Bills, sale advertisements and an envelope from someone by the name of Janice Tensely lay in a stack in front of him. Who is Janice Tensely? Taking another drink of coffee and tapping the corner of the envelope on the table as if this would help reveal who this person was, he didn’t have a clue.
The mystery was quickly solved as soon as he saw the letterhead: Hunters Lane High School Alumni Association, Janice Mayhew Tensely, President. Now it made sense. Janice Mayhew was his former classmate from his old alma mater. Unfortunately, Richard only vaguely remembered her. Without the yearbook, he doubted she remembered him. The last invitation he’d received had been tossed as soon as he saw the words class reunion typed in black bold letters on the white paper. At that time it had only been five years since the class of ’92 walked across the gymnasium platform receiving their diplomas. A reunion sounded silly. The class hadn’t been out long enough to forget anyone. Some were still in college. He had not bothered to respond let alone attend. In this letter Janice’s words reminded him it had been twenty years since they graduated from high school. Richard found himself wondering where the time had gone and curious to how she had found him. Quickly answering his own question, he figured she had contacted his parents or siblings since they still lived in the same town.
As memories came forth, so did faces he had long forgotten. “What was that girl’s name?” Richard asked out loud to no one. “Candace? Karen? Caroline? Yes, Caroline something.” Richard’s memory took him back to a day when he had noticed a girl coming into the library as he was exiting causing him to nearly drop his books. Until that moment, girls were unnoticed. But this girl was different. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He found himself searching for her everywhere. He looked intently in the hallways, the lunchroom, the library, until he finally saw her at a pep rally. He would have sat next to her had it not been for her silly girl friends squeezing into a space where there was none. He did see her from time to time, but he never got the nerve to approach and speak to her. He didn’t even know her name until the yearbook came out. Thinking of Caroline caused him to smile wondering where she is now.