Free Hidden History by Melody Carlson

evening, and I don’t intend to leave until I know he’s on the plane and flying over the ocean.”
    “Good for you,” said Alice. “It’ll be nice having you around. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go change.”
    After her shower, Alice considered her little speech to Susan. It was not untrue, but Alice sensed that she had been trying too hard. But why? Why should she feel any need to convince Susan that being single was nothing less than perfect for her? Oh, yes, she sometimes wished that she had married and had had children, even grandchildren, but usually those moments were brief. She knew that she had a family within the church, and more recently, with her two beloved sisters. Still, there was a little something that nagged at her. Maybe it was that old “what if” question.
    Alice went over to her bookshelf and pulled out a scrap-book. It was something that her father had given her while she was still in high school. He had pasted her first perfect report card in it, along with a red ribbon she had won at a track meet in junior high. “The rest is up to you,” he told her.
    “But what shall I put in it?” she asked. “I don’t have any more ribbons.”
    “Put in things that mean something to you,” he suggested. “It’s just a keepsake for you to enjoy when you are older.”
    So Alice had begun sticking this and that on the sturdy gray pages—photos of friends, her graduation announcement and her honor roll tassel. She set it aside after she started nursing school in Philadelphia, too busy with a full load of classes and her part-time job at the pharmacy to keep up with such things. Of course, that changed at the end of her sophomore year when she rescued the wounded cat and began to date the handsome young veterinarian, Mark Graves. After that she started taping in movie stubs, birthday cards, theater tickets, pressed flowers and even the few love notes that he had sent her during the more than two years that they had seen each other exclusively. Alice flipped past these faded bits of memorabilia now, going to the later pages of her scrapbook. These pages held recent newspaper clippings sent to her by an old college friend, Virginia Herman, who still lived in Philadelphia and stayed in touch. Several of them were about Mark’s career.
    Alice studied the most recent photo of Mark. He had kindness in his dark eyes. She liked that he sported a full beard. It was hard to tell by the grainy newspaper photo, but his hair looked fairly gray. He looked dignified, like someone Alice would enjoy knowing. And yet they lived in completely different worlds—only an hour away, but a lifetime apart. She closed the book and sighed. How odd to think that Mark’s sister was downstairs right now. Wasn’t life funny?
    Susan joined them for dinner again, along with Ethel. Jane did not mind extra mouths at the table. She often said it was easier for her to cook for a group. This was fortunate, since the more people heard about Jane’s fine culinary skills, the more they seemed to show up at mealtimes.
    “Are you ready to go to the meeting, Alice?” asked Ethel after they finished a dessert of chocolate mousse.
    “Meeting?” Alice frowned. “Oh, I totally forgot.”
    Ethel smiled. “Good thing I stopped by. Better go get a sweater, it is starting to get cool. I’ll wait.”
    Alice thanked Jane for the lovely dinner and then excused herself. Her steps felt heavy as she went upstairs. While she was committed to the church and the board meetings, she would have preferred her sisters’ company tonight.
    “I guess we’ll have to wait until tomorrow for our reading,” said Louise as Alice and Ethel headed for the door.
    Alice nodded. “Sorry, I completely forgot about this meeting.”
    “What reading?” asked Ethel as they walked over to the church.
    Alice considered this. She would not mind if Ethel read the journal later, but this time with her sisters had been special, and she did not want anything