Golden Envelope Karri fumbled while trying to open up her mail box. With each tug she grew even more frustrated. Finally it budged open and she could fit her slender hand into the crack to retrieve the mail. As she scanned through the bills, one gold bordered envelope caught her eye. She adjusted her eyes on the return address and then began to glare at it. Cindy Mitmeyer, N56W78396 Vipen Way, Tempelton Wisconsin. That name began to ring through her ears. Just when Karri had finally put her high school years behind her she receives this. Karri made her way past the white picketed fence and strode up the brick walk way. Once she was in the kitchen she sat apon a wooden stool and began to peel away the seal. With great caution she pulled out what appeared to be an invitation. An apprehensive feeling came over her. The inside of the invitation read: It�s been ten years since we all have attended Tempelton High School Come to a gathering so that we can all be reunited once again Date: June 26th 2005 thru June 28th Place: Weeping Willow Conference room at the Grands hotel S72W76423 Hutchens Lane, Tempelton Wisconsin Time: Check in is at 3:00 p.m. on Friday and Check out is 11:00 a.m. on Sunday R.S.V.P to the hotel by May 26th (414) 863-0972 Hope to see you all there! Karri was in a trance until the back door began to open. Her two young children paraded inside and threw their backpacks down on the floor. �Mommy, you won�t believe what I got to do at school today! I was the line leader and got to be the first one to lunch!� shouted Clair. � Oh yea well today I had a quick multiplication test and I got the most right out of everyone in the class!� exclaimed Joey. Karri gave her children a large grin, slid the invitation into its rightful place, the garbage can and then gave each child a hug. �I am so proud of both of you, how about we have some ice-cream.� Later on that night after her children were in bed and her husband had just entered the shower Karri entered the den and sat in the rocking chair that faced the bay window. She sat there in near darkness the only light came peering through the window from the moon. Karri began to reflect back to her high school years. She had moved to Wisconsin from South Dakota right after the eighth grade. As a new student in a new state knowing no one Karri tried desperately to fit in. She had resorted to acting as the popular kids did in the attempt to fit in. At first it had seemed to work, she went a few places with the in crowd but then after a while she began to hear things. Now high school gossip is the worst sort, its so over exaggerated and one sided, and at the same time, people buy it. As the years passed she was on again off again fake. During the middle of her sophomore year it hit her that she didn�t need those popular people and acted as herself. She formed a whole new set of friends, but then for one reason or another she wasn�t quite satisfied not being at the top of the todum pole, even if that power meant acting a different way. For the rest of her high school career she struggled to work her way back to the top. The popular crowd wasn�t going to let her in easily and so she basically was at the command of them. It took a tole on not only her but also her grades, family, and other friends. By the end of senior year, after the in crowd crossed the line, Karri came home and it finally hit her. She had ignored her true self practically the entire time and now this was the cost for popularity. She found herself cheating, groveling and despite of all her hard work she felt even lower than with her other friends. All she had to show for her countless errands, favors and compliments was a spot at a lunch table and a few party invitations. Those things came at the price of her identity, she was now morally drained. Her life could have been filled with so much more happiness and love. Instead it was filled with gloom and false hope. By the time she realized the hypocrisy of it all it was too late. All of her other friends were so hurt by her past actions that they wanted nothing to do with her, her family also was fed up. Graduation day was a huge relief for Karri, it meant she could move away and start off new. She went to a college where no one knew her and took her new attitude with her. That is where she met her husband as well as a handful of new friends. She stayed in North Carolina in hopes of leaving her past in the past and concentrating on making her life go the way she wanted it to. The clock on the wall read 11:45 p.m.. Karri left the den and slipped into her bed. By the time she got there her husband was already half asleep. She laid there motionless for a half hour just listening to the faint snore her husband produced before she finally fell asleep. The next morning Karri was awaken by the faint smell of coffee. Opening one eyelid at a time she mustered enough energy to put her robe and slippers on and make her way to the kitchen. She came to an abrupt halt in the middle of the door way as she noticed what her husband was reading. He had taken the invitation from the garbage can. �Trevor, what are you doing with that?� questioned Karri. �You didn�t tell me that your high school reunion is coming up,� said Trevor �Well the only reason I didn�t mention it is because I don�t think that I�m going to go� �Why wouldn�t you want to babe? I mean from the looks of it this sounds like its going to be quite the reunion, who knows what is going to happen, I went to mine and trust me it�s worth it.� �No there is just too much stuff around here that needs to get done, with the kids and everything, plus getting off work and then plane tickets and a hotel room, I think that it�s best if I just stay here.� �Honey don�t worry about it, we can go and get away for a little while, it can be our little vacation, how does that sound?� �Trevor I don�t know about this, I mean in high school I had some rough times and some of those people I�m not going to want to see.� �Well your not going to want to see everyone, come on, what is this all about?� �Mommy! Can I have some juicy?� hollered Joey �I�ll get it in a minute Joey! We can talk about this later alright just right now I would like to think about weather I want to even go or not alright.� �Ok honey, sure,� said Trevor After going through a typical Saturday morning routine Karri and Trevor decided to take their children to the near by park. Karri filled a bag with toys and packed a picnic lunch while Trevor packed the cooler and got the car ready. While at the park Joey and Clair scampered off with the other children as Karri and Trevor lounged apon a red and white checkered blanket underneath an oak tree. It was then that Karri pulled out her senior yearbook and began to spill to her husband. She began to tell him of her constant struggle with her peers and the way that she felt when she opened that envelope. After she had revealed her true past to her husband she looked into his eyes and felt at ease. Karri�s hazel eyes began to glisten, Trevor leaned over and kissed her lightly on the forehead. The rest of the afternoon was spent in each others arms and playing with the children. After tucking the children in both Karri and Trevor sat on the burgundy love seat that was positioned in front of their fireplace. After much deliberation Trevor convinced Karri to confront her past and go through with plans to leave for the reunion. With slight hesitation, but complete confidence in her husbands advice she convinced herself to follow through with the invite. Through out the next month Karri did all that she could to prepare her self for the reunion. She didn�t want to come off as fake like she did for so much of her high school career and yet didn�t want to seem as if she hadn�t gotten anywhere in life. For the next month Karri mentally prepared herself for the reunion. She tried not to concentrate on it too much and found herself becoming a work aholic in order to keep it off her mind. The reunion was exactly four days from now. Karri had everything set, her children were with her sister on vacation, the plane tickets and hotel were booked, and both her and her husband had cleared their schedules. It was Monday night when Karri got one of those feelings in the pit of her stomach. It was than that Karri received a call at exactly 6:24. The voice on the other line seemed worried. �Mrs. Lindow, there has been an incident.� �What, what are you talking about, what kind of an incident?� questioned Karri �You see Joey was out in the woods with a group of boys, they started a fire with out any adult supervision and from what we gathered he caught fire.� Quivered the voice on the other line. �What, this can�t be happening, where is he? What is going on?� screeched Karri She began to feel her insides tear apart. The image of her little boy on fire was much more than she could bear. Trying to stay as controlled as possible she yelled out �Trevor, Oh my dear god Trevor!� He came running into the room and Karri thrust the phone at him. �Hello, who is this? What is going on?� �Sir, as I was telling your wife, there has been a situation� The person on the other line went on explaining the details. Trevor was in a state of shock. No emotion showed, his face was blank, right now Trevor�s main concern was getting to his suffering son. After scooping Karri up from the floor and shoving her hysterical body into the car they drove. Joey had been taken by flight for life to a hospital that was 48 miles from their home. Trevor drove like a maniac, he weaved through all the sets of cars and fought back tears all at the same time. At last they reached the hospital. Once inside the nurses had to calm down Karri and than explain Joey�s condition to them. He was burnt on a total of 20 % of his body, doctors said he was rather lucky. His condition at this point was critical and doctors were doing all they could to keep him conscious. Karri and Trevor were not even allowed to see their son at that moment in fear of spreading disease and causing more complication. While being forced to wait in the lobby Karri sat with a blank face. She couldn�t think of anything. Meanwhile Trevor was on the phone canceling their trip to the reunion and informing all of their family members of what happened. Two hours later Karri and Trevor were called in to see their son. He was now completely bandaged up and his condition was now stable. They walked into the room to see their son staring at the ceiling. As soon as they walked in Joey agonized them. For the rest of the night there was a lot of emotion. The next afternoon, after having only two hours of sleep under her belt Karri sat in the hospital restaurant drinking a cup of coffee. She grabbed the notebook that was beside her and began to write. When she was finished she sighed and tore out her writing. She carefully folded the sheets of paper and stuck them in her jeans pocket. She then went to talk to some other family members. On Friday evening Karri and Trevor were still in the hospital, only this time in the recovery wing. Their son would make it but needed to have skin graphs and a few operations. In Tempelton the reunion weekend started. Miss Cindy Mitmeyer called everyone together and welcomed them. She began with a speech of memories of teachers and then moved to a letter that she received that very afternoon. She read it out loud to everyone. The entire mood of the room shifted. Karri had wrote Cindy explaining how she felt through out high school. It went on about how it was no one person�s fault. By the time Cindy was done she looked up to see everyone looking around at one another, than one by one people raised their own hands to speak. Karri�s letter inspired others to speak out on their own behalf. By the end of that weekend the people at the convention all came together on the same level. Meanwhile, Karri and Trevor were able to take their son home. He had to have a nurse come during the afternoon to assist him. With in weeks things around the neighborhood were as back to normal as they could be. Karri was walking outside with Joey one afternoon about a month after the incident and opened up the mailbox. There she pulled out a rather large, bulky envelope. The return address was from Cindy. Karri walked inside and sat upon the same stool that she had when she opened the invitation and was awestruck at what the envelopes contained. There were pictures, notes, and other tidbits from many of her peers. Karri began to page through everything and was instantly filled with satisfaction. She could finally end the war with herself, after all these years.
Copyright © 2006 Emily Schwingel |