The Reunion, The End

I turn to the man and my face must have been a picture.  He stood there stoically and I did all of the work, let out a gasp and then flung my arms around his neck.  I was genuinely happy to see him.

"Do you know who I am?" He quizzed me.  "Of course I do!"  I had a crush on this "boy" for the majority of our time together.  He leaned in and told me this sweet story, or at least I imagine it was a sweet story, something about pens, and how it had meant a lot to him, couldn't quite hear over the noise of the music.  I explained to him that I had a huge crush on him for the duration and then went on to ask about his kids and his wife.  It was lovely.

The night continued and more of my friends from the school days arrived.  We sat outside where it was a little cooler.  One of my crowd advised that she had left the town as soon as she could.  One reminisced about her 18th birthday party.  "Remember my 18th when..."  "No".  "Yes you do.......".  "Was I there?"  I'm still not convinced that I was actually there.

After a few rounds of; "are you married?" "So, no kids?"  (But not as many rounds as expected.)  I found myself catching up with, actually, one of the school bullies.  She never bullied me and I actually remember her apologising for swearing in front of me, I do remember her explaining to the group of us that she didn't know why, but that she did have to apologise if she swore in front of me.  I escaped for some reason but I do remember vividly that she bullied my friends.

Still, this person is also +20 years older and full of life experience and life has been tough.  In this person, I find an unexpected, kindred spirit.  This person quietly asks, "are you married?"  "No, I'm not."  "Me neither, I didn't want just anyone and the right person just never came along."  Could I have explained it any better than that?

I left the night early although it wasn't far off midnight, the party was still going on but not being used to nights out and socialising, I was content with the hours that I had clocked up, and my bed was calling me.

It took me about 40 minutes to leave by the time I had said goodbye to most people and of course, those that I was good friends with at school, the goodbyes more time.

One of my goodbyes with a good friend was extra long.  It was light and hearty and lovely and then, as she hugged me goodbye, she told me that she'd never forgotten how good I was to her at school.  I instantly knew what she was talking about, but I had forgotten all about it for, how ever many years.  This was the first time in my life that I felt like there was a reason for me to be here, on earth.  If I made a difference to one person, for a moment in her life, then it was worth being here for.