Long Lost Friend

Long Lost Friend

         Five or six days a week, 10 to 20 hours a day, Mary is at work, bustin' her tail, trying to make ends meet, trying to help others to a better life, but not even on her days off can she begin to relax. There's always something that needs to be taken care of, kids need to be dropped off to one place or another, or work inevitably ruins her weekend for one reason or another, but today is Saturday. And Saturday has always been the day Mary kept for herself. Only this Saturday was going to be different. This Saturday she would share with someone special. Someone whom she has not seen in a very long time. One of her dear long lost friends, Sarah!

         Mary met Sarah when they were in grade school, and the two together were enough to keep the whole town on their toes. The girls were always getting into some kind of mischief, which always ended the same way...their parents threatening the next time the two of them got into trouble again, they'd never be able to see eachother for the rest of their childhood lives. They did however, despite all their's parents empty threats. It seems as though, the two were a handful together, but much worse apart. So, their parents never really held up to their word for fear of what kind of rebellion that might bring. The two girls remained very close friends all the way through high school. There was no one who could separate the friends.

         The two girls shared so many memories and so many firsts. There was one time when they were playing tag on recess in grade school, someone got a little carried away then managed to break each other's arms. They were both rushed to the emergency room, where they shared another first...the first to sign each other's casts. As they reached Middle school, they began attending coed parties where incidentally they ended up kissing the same boy as their first kiss.

         During the summer between middle school and high school, the girls started to get more daring and started hanging out with the wrong crowd of people. The group they were hanging around with introduced them to smoking cigarettes, drinking liquor, and experimenting with other kinds of trouble, such as the wide world of vandalism and all of its glory, as well as the police record that has followed them both for many years now.

         The first time Mary and Sarah stole anything was at the local gas station, and it was before they ever used hidden cameras. The group decided that they felt the newbies needed to prove their loyalty to them, so they dared them to go inside and come back with something useful or something expensive without getting caught. The girls decided to walk in separately so not to attract attention to themselves. Then Mary headed off to the left side of store where the magazines were located, and Sarah headed to the right where they kept the candies. Mary grabbed a couple of different magazines, looked to see if anyone was watching, then stuffed the stolen merchandise down the front of her pants. Over where Sarah was, she was filling her pockets full of the different types of candies. As they headed to counter with one of the stolen items, Sarah winked at Mary, who was struggling to hide the fear she felt inside. You could just see the excitment building in Sarah's face at the same moment. Just as they began to pay, a police car pulled in to get some gas. Mary became extremely nervous, and Sarah noticed this right away.

         "What are you doing? Don't get all chicken on me! If you get me caught, I'll never forgive you!" whispered Sarah, demanding that Mary continue with the plan.

         The plan went without a hitch, and the girls came out looking like pros. After the two girls showed off their prizes, Mary suddenly didn't feel much like staying out any longer. She told Sarah she'd talk to her later, but that she was going to head home. Sarah, however, was still riding the tidal wave of excitement and begged her not to go home just yet. Mary tried to explain how it just didn't feel right, but in the end, Sarah won, just as she always did. Sarah then challenged the group to see who could come up the most stuff from this store and the few surrounding ones. The group's eventful evening of larceny came to a sudden halt when more of the local police showed up but this time it was to arrested everyone on the spot. They weren't really arrested though. They were mostly detained until their parent got there, and then scolded very severely by both the police and their parents. Mary swore she'd never participate ever again, but Sarah found this to be very thrilling...so Mary had to follow along.

         All throughout High School, the girls remained inseparable, and were in and out of the principal's office. While Mary had very good grades, she always let Sarah have the best of her. She always let her cheat off her tests in the classes they shared, and in the classes that Mary was a teacher's aid, she'd steal a copy of the test for her. And anytime Mary started to join a school organization, Sarah always convinced her that it was a waste of time, so she'd quit.

         By the time the girls reached College (Sarah was there soley by Mary's grades), they started to drift apart. Mary was no longer able to help Sarah cheat, who quickly dropped out of College at the end of the semester (either that or she was threatened that she would be dropped if she couldn't raise her grades}. Sarah stopped coming by Mary's house, stopped returning phone calls, and just kind of went into obscurity never to heard from again until today.

         Mary went on to graduate with very high honors in Criminal law and is currently studying to pass the bar in California for her third and final try. Her dream is to protect the innocent and serve justice to those that deserve punishment. In a way, its kind of retrobution for the crimes she committed in her younger days, this is also the reason its taken this long to pass the bar. Her scores are good, she knows the material, she just has to prove that she's not the same person. As part of this, she recently went back to the store she stole from in her younger days, which is now under new management, and paid back in full the cost of what she stole and what Sarah stole times 10. The owner looked like she was crazy, but she some how convinced the man to finally take the money, and sign an avadavit that all debts are paid and all is forgiven. She also has become a big part of the local crime prevention group, which helps kids stay away from that life style through other means of entertainment, such as basketball tournaments.

         Today Mary is both excited to see her long lost friend, and a little anxious as to why she has suddenly reappeared after so many years. Maybe she has changed and just wants to get back in touch, reminis on old times, hang out again like before....or maybe she's in trouble and needs Mary to help her out of a situation. Mary knows in the past she could never say no to Sarah, and now she's even more worried that she'll ruin all that she has worked so hard for, after all, when she took the phone call, all Sarah could say was that she needed to see her right away and hung up.

         12:00 is almost here, and Mary suddenly to wonder if she should just leave and say something came up...just avoid the situation, but then quickly realizes if its serious, she won't go away until she gets what she's after.

         "DING, DONG!"came the sound of the doorbell. "I guess this is it! No turning back now!" said Mary to herself as she headed over to let her friend in.

         Mary slowly opened the door for fear of what might be on the other side, but to her surprise it was a very well dressed, beauty Sarah with an unknown man, who also looked very nice.

         "Howdy, friend! Long time no see..did ya' miss me? I missed you very much!"spoke Sarah as she entered the house.

         Mary wanted to start off with "Where the heck have you been?", but decided to see where this was going, afterall she still didn't know the reason why Sarah was here to begin with, so instead she said, "So, what's up? Your message sounded urgent. Is something wrong?"

         As Mary anxiously awaited this response, Sarah told of all the things she had been doing in the last few years and how she had been closer to her than she knew. She told how she attended Mary's graduation, went to many of the Crime Prevention rallies, and how she has been trying to become the person Mary always tried to help her be throughout school. And she introduced Mary to the unknown guy, Dave, who is her fiance.

         "So why did you go away, and why didn't you ever say anything when you attended those things?" said a very hurt Mary.

         "I was embarrassed and I wanted to become a better person before approaching you again. I didn't realize until College that I was holding you back from becoming something great. You're on the news all the time now, and I can only imagine what you could have been if I hadn't been there to talk you into the stupid stuff we did as kids..."continued Sarah.

         "That just it! We were stupid kids, doing stupid kid stunts. You never held be back. I chose to do those things with you. I am who I am now because of the choices I made as a kid. I don't have a single regret, except maybe getting caught since I can't seem to pass the bar because of it. But that's okay, because I deserved it for the things I did."said Mary.

         The two long lost friends talked for hours about things in the past and old memories each had forgotten. Just as it started to get late, and the three of them were being to get tired, Sarah suddenly remembered why she was here to begin with. She had come to ask forgiveness first, and to ask Mary to be her maid-of-honour.

         "I would love too!"was the only response Mary could come up with as she started to weep tears of joy.

         They quickly wrapped up the evening, and made plans to get together later this week over dinner to finalize their plans. Just as Sarah and Dave headed out the door, Sarah turned to give Mary a hug good-bye and spoke in her ear "Don't worry, I'll never leave you again. I owe you all that I am now, for you were always my inspiration to be a better person. I love you for that!" As Mary turned to shut the door, she began to shed another tear, then whispered "Thank you!"