A light rain rolled down the wide diner windows, clouding the view outside.
It was getting cooler almost daily. There'd be the first frost soon, then the long slow descent into winter would start.
Peter nursed his coffee. He and Lucius had been talking the usual. School business, how the cross-country team was doing, the art teacher who was pregnant and quitting after this year. But he was more interested in talking about another topic. The one that hadn't left his mind the last few weeks. The one with
the red-gold hair and the perfect dash of freckles around her nose.
“Heard you dropped a beaker on Friday in lab,” Lucius was saying.
Peter shrugged. “It was slippery. Nothing was in it.”
“Always gives the kids a laugh, I bet.”
“Hey, if it gets their attention I'll drop a brick on my head.”
“Wouldn't be because you were distracted by anything, would it?”
He said nothing.
“Heard our visitor is back in town. You should invite her over to help with
the treehouse again.”
Peter heaved a sigh. “I see Carol has you on speed dial.”
Lucius smiled. “Just looking out for our friends.”
Friends. He wasn't sure what that word meant anymore. Were you friends
with someone if you daydreamed about how the sunset made her hair flame gold when you were trying to grade lab quizzes? He must have been lonelier than he'd
thought.
“Anyway, it's raining,” Peter pointed out.
“So ask her inside. Kind of nice seeing her all grown up,” Lucius said.
No, they were not talking about this.
Lucius continued. “It's interesting. I've been teaching so long I see a lot of students come back. I recognize their faces or their walk or voice. Some change
a lot, and I can't recognize them. Some look pretty much the same.”
“I can't tell with Kate. It's like she's in there somewhere,” Peter said. “The real Kate. The 'Katie.' Behind the designer watches and alkaline bottled water, underneath the gray business skirts.”
Lucius cocked his eyebrows. “Underneath the skirts?”
“You know what I mean.”
Lucius nodded, seeming to consider something. “I do know what you mean.
You want her to be who you think she really is.”
Peter shrugged. “She can be who she wants.”
“I just wondered if maybe you want her to be someone you once knew.”
“And who is that?”
“The girl next door. The one you grew up with.” His voice grew softer. “The
one who got away.” He cleared his throat. “So to speak.”
Peter's eyes narrowed. “We're talking about Kate, right?”
He shifted in his seat. “Of course. What I'm saying is you remember Kate the way she was, and now you're seeing her as who she is. And you're trying to
decide which one is which.”
“Which one is the real Kate? I think I can tell you pretty easily.” He ticked
off his fingers. “Successful, talented, fashionable, driven, confident.” Beautiful.
Brown eyes. Out of your league. And, once she'd done with her Nitrovex proposal, out of your life. “I told her myself last weekend. Everyone grows up.
She's chosen a nice life for herself.” He took a sip of his own coffee. “She's moved on. This is just a brief stop in her old life, and then she's back to the big city.”
Lucius nodded. “Hmm. You seem a little bitter about that.”
