“Come on,” they heard a voice say. “That’s Sharon Holdenhoven you’re talking about, there’s no holding her back.”

Bob looked up to see another friend he hadn’t seen in a long time: Scott Tyler. Scott had been another jock, but not a prick like so many of them, and he was another one of those people who was friends with everybody. “Bob, I don’t think I’ve seen you since graduation,” he said. “What have you been doing with yourself?”

“Oh, in Colorado mostly,” he replied. “Working for Colorado State University in Fort Collins.”

“That would account for not seeing you around here much,” Scott smiled. “How about you, Sharon?”

“Oh, this and that,” she said. “I’m currently between jobs, waiting for the next ship to come in. And might this lovely woman be your wife?”

Bob looked up, to see a tall, dark woman with Scott. Her skin was dark, yes – but it seemed to be more Middle Eastern brown rather than black. Her face wasn’t any of those, though; there were traces of Oriental there. Not only was she downright beautiful, she was one of the more exotic looking people he’d ever seen.

“She is,” Scott smiled. “Sonja, this is Sharon Holdenhoven and Bob Spheris. Bob is one of the good kids, and you’ve heard me tell stories about Sharon.”

“Most of them are probably true,” Sharon piped up. “I’m afraid that I had a bit of a reputation in high school. Not a bad reputation, mind you, but I got talked about a lot. People in school do talk about other people a lot, don’t you think? I suppose that’s to be expected, and now we’re here recovering our skills that we lost many years ago, and catching up on the gossip. On the other hand, since I don’t remember you I would presume that you’re not a Bradford ’88, so you’re probably bored to tears with all this blather about the good old days, no matter how good they were.”

“No, I’m not bored,” Sonja smiled. “Scott and I hang out a lot with some of the Bradford ’88s, and we’re best friends with Aaron and Amber Heisler, so that helps.”

“Are you guys holding these seats for anyone?” Scott asked. “Amber and Aaron are going to be along later, their kids had something they didn’t want to miss. We’d kind of like to sit with them. There seem to be plenty of seats here for all of us so we could save them some.”

“Fine with me,” Bob said. “Sharon could stand a bigger audience, anyway.”

“Oh, you,” Sharon grinned, sticking out her tongue at him for an instant. “I mean, the purpose of being here is to remember the good old days and see what’s happened to the people we knew. I just am one to talk about myself a bit, not like dull old Bob here, where you have to put in a fistful of nickels to get one back, like a bad Las Vegas slot machine.”

“Hey, come on,” he smiled. “I may not be as talkative as some people at this table, but I at least try to hold up my end of a conversation.”

“Oh, pooh to you too,” she grinned back irrepressibly. “Come, Scott, Sonja. Please sit down. If Bob wants to be dull we need someone to liven up the conversation.”

“No need for that,” Bob teased back. “That’s why I’m sitting around you, so I don’t have to say much.”

Scott shook his head as he held the chair for Sonja. “Some people change, and well, some people don’t.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Sharon said. “Sonja, I’ve heard about you, but I know we’ve never met. Since you’re not a Bradfordian, I suppose you met Scott someplace else.”

“Right,” Sonja nodded. “I’m from Pontiac, we met at Michigan State.”

“Pontiac?” Sharon said. “I would have thought, well, someplace more exotic.”

“No, plain old Pontiac,” Sonja smiled. “I just have an odd family background, so I suppose I stick out a little.”

“So what is it you do with your life? I presume the same old thing, children and like that?” Sharon asked.

“Well, we have kids,” Sonja said. “I do contract software and web site development, so I’m mostly a stay-at-home mom. The kids are getting big enough that they don’t have to be watched every minute, so that helps.”

“And she makes more money at her stay at home job than I do going to work,” Scott snorted. “Dad said, ‘Don’t bother to mess around with computers, they’re just a passing fad, get something solid in business.’ You see where that got me?”

“They do seem to have taken over everything, haven’t they?” Sharon said. “My word, when we graduated we hardly knew what a computer was, and now they are everywhere and doing everything. I have a little laptop that has served me well, although it’s getting pretty old now. It serves my purposes though. I was surfing the net the other day for lack of anything better to do and I happened to think how little of that had been thought of when we were in school.”

“Sonja and people like her are responsible for that,” Scott said. “I never realized that when I set out to hide this pretty draft dodger that it would turn out like it did.”

“Draft dodger?” Bob frowned. “Huh?”

“Oh, we’re not going to drag that old story out, are we?” Sonja smiled. “My mother is Israeli, and I held dual citizenship. Well, still hold it, I guess. They draft women into the Israeli Army, and since my mom was then a major in the Israeli Army it didn’t look good for her daughter to be hiding out here in the states, so she was going nuts trying to get me to do my duty. She came looking for me, and to avoid a hassle, I left my dad’s house – they’ve been divorced a long time – and went down to Scott’s to hide out. Well, to make a long story short, Emily knew about us, and when this strange woman came into her store asking about me, she figured out what was going on, kept her mouth shut, and called Scott to warn us. We were out of town within minutes, and, well, Scott and I have been together ever since.”

“My, that is a story,” Sharon said. “You don’t hear of that sort of thing very often. I suppose you are still not getting along with your mother?”

“We get along fine, now,” Sonja replied. “It took a while, though.”

“It also took naming our daughter ‘Sabra’,” Scott laughed. “Her mother’s retired now, but through a couple of odd circumstances, our kids both have dual citizenship as well, and I think she has her eye on getting her grandchildren into Israeli uniform, as well.” He let out a sigh. “We have a few years before we have to fight that battle, though. She hasn’t mellowed much in her old age, old General Grandma hasn’t.”

“I have to admit,” Bob laughed. “I keep hearing these stories of the stuff people have gotten into, and it makes me seem as dull as I really am.”

“Oh, dear Bob,” Sharon laughed. “I was merely teasing you; don’t you know that? You are an absolute jewel of a fellow, and while your life might not be as adventurous as some, you do have your fine points. Think of all those poor students at Colorado State who wouldn’t have whatever it is you locate for them unless you were the one to buy it. Think of the service to humanity that you perform, your contributions to the education of the youth of our land. Why, one college I went to had mattresses that were so beaten and lumpy that it was obscene, and I don’t even want to think of the obscene things that must have taken place upon them over the decades they’d been on the beds there. I mean, when you think of all the trysting that must have been committed upon them, the virginities lost, the babies started, it was enough to make you wonder what sort of things infested those mattresses. Yet you, Bob, you keep the students at your university safe and comfortable as they explore their new realms.”

“She doesn’t wind down easily, does she?” Sonja grinned.

“Nope, no way,” Bob laughed. “That was a warm up compared to what she used to do in American History class. I will never forget that time that Mr. Travolta asked her to describe who Martin Van Buren was. Boy, did he ever make a mistake when he did that.”

“Oh, God!” A strange voice said. “I remember that! I thought I would die laughing. She went on for a good fifteen minutes and never once got near Martin Van Buren. I always wondered if she really knew who he was.”

“Of course I knew, Jennlynn,” Sharon laughed. “I was merely trying to put things in the proper perspective. Now, I’d agree that Mr. Travolta was just looking for a description of Mr. Van Buren as a dead president and would have been satisfied with that. But good student that I was, I felt that the topic required a little more detail for proper background.”

“And you didn’t want to take the quiz promised for the end of the hour, either,” Jennlynn said. Bob turned to look at her. She was still recognizably the class valedictorian. She was also a stunningly beautiful woman who even put Sonja in the shade. She had long, full, dark hair, a nice face, and a spectacular body. She was very tastefully and expensively dressed and looked like a million bucks. Bob had heard a few snickers when the topic of Jennlynn had come up, but one thing was clear – a million bucks was chump change to her. She was worth considerably more than that.

Jennlynn was just about the only Bradford ’88 student who Bob had heard about over the last twenty years. As there was little doubt that she was the richest member of the class, she was also easily the most famous. She had been a national figure for some time after her role in breaking up a hijacking of a Southern airliner back in the days following September 11. She’d faded back into the shadows as far as national attention went, but there were places Bob was familiar with in Nevada where Jennlynn was still legend indeed.

For a couple reasons involving those locations, Bob didn’t want to say anything, but as usual Sharon was the one forward enough to ask the questions. “Come, sit and join us,” she said. “It has been far too long since I’ve seen you. I’ve heard stories about you indeed. I suppose that this handsome refugee from Marlboro Country is the famous Sergeant Hoffman?”

“Command Chief Master Sergeant Will Hoffman at your service, ma’am,” the tall, lanky, dark guy in the impeccable suit said. Bob glanced up at him; he really looked like he should be wearing jeans, a denim jacket, and a cowboy hat.

“You’re still in the service, Will?” Scott asked. “I thought you’d have gotten out a long time ago.”

“No, we made the decision that I’ll stay in until retirement,” he said. “However, I’m still at Nellis and expect to stay there for a while. That works just fine, since when Jennlynn is at the ranch I can fly the 185 into work at the base.”

“There are some political reasons for Will to stay in for a while longer,” Jennlynn said. “That and the fact that he can route some business our way from the Air Force.”

“Is that the business you’re famous for?” Sharon said with a straight face.

“If you consider I’m famous for running a corporate jet charter company,” Jennlynn smiled, knowing just exactly what Sharon was saying and not taking any offense from it. In fact, the legend about her was that she was proud of it. Not everyone in the class felt like that, so Bob realized why Sharon had talked around it. “I still do research consulting down in Phoenix, but Lambdatron wanted me to do more management than I preferred, so I just work on that from home by telecommuting when I’m at the ranch.”

“That’s one heck of a ranch, I heard Emily say,” Scott said. “What, two hundred square miles?”

“Two hundred square miles of sagebrush, salt pans, and sand,” Will said. “You’d be surprised how few cattle we can support. Sometimes the cattle just about manage to pay the taxes. If we didn’t have Jennlynn’s share of Lambdatron and the charter business we’d be hurting bad.”

“You’re out of your other business, then?” Sharon asked.

“Personally, yes,” she sighed. “Sometimes I miss it, too, but it was just getting in the way of too many other things, and I’m not as young as I used to be. I still own a piece of the action in Antelope Valley, and we’re thinking that when Will retires, we may open a special operation we’ve dreamed of.”

“You must be doing pretty well for yourself,” Bob said.

“Oh, I’m not hurting,” Jennlynn smiled. “Don’t get me wrong. I like having money and I like owning and flying jet planes. But if things had broken differently, I could be just as happy being a house hooker in some small parlor house, so long as I had Will with me. Being Learjet Jenn was fun, but it got to be a pain in the butt there at the end.”

They talked for a couple more minutes, and then Jennlynn said that she wanted to be sure she circulated and talked to everyone, but that she and Will might be back later. After they left, Scott shook his head and said softly, “There goes one classy lady.”

“You can say that again,” Bob said. “I’m not ashamed to say that I came that close to crapping my drawers when the news about her came out after the hijacking. I never ever figured that our Jennlynn could become the most famous prostitute in the country. It was the last, I mean the absolute last thing I would have expected out of her.”

“Think how we felt when we were at the reunion ten years ago when she announced what she did,” Scott snickered. “There was a definite fecal smell in the air when that happened. The only thing that kept things from going crazy was that Eve stood up and outed herself. With two shocks like that, no one knew what to say.”

“That was quite a night,” Sonja smiled.

“I’ve heard a great deal about that evening,” Sharon grinned. “I have to admit to great sorrow that I was unable to attend. If I’d had even an inkling that something like that was going to come about, the Pacific would not have stood in the way of my presence. But no, I fear I was in Pusan that evening, admiring the shape and creases of my navel and dreaming about Bob, who was probably doing much the same thing in the great square state of Colorado.”

“No idea,” Bob said. “Let’s face it, I haven’t had much to do with the class since those days. I just wanted to take the on-ramp and get out of town. I didn’t much care where, so long as it was elsewhere.”

“I think most of us felt that way,” Scott agreed. “I mean, some more than others. There’s only a handful of us still around town, at least that’s what I get from Emily. There’s not a lot in Bradford for a kid with ambition, although it made a pretty good starting point for some of us.”

“Yes, that’s true,” Sharon agreed. “I was as ready as anyone else to get out of town, but I wasn’t particularly ready to settle down. In fact, I have to admit that I have yet to figure out what I want to do when I grow up.”

“If you grow up,” Bob snickered.

“Well yes, but there is some advantage to not growing up,” she laughed. “I mean, unlike you. I swear Bob, I think you were grown up in fifth grade. You were always the quiet, introspective one, the one thinking rather than doing. I, on the other hand, I was always ready to do the next thing, have the next experience, and see what was on the other side of the hill. I know there are people who don’t think much of what Jennlynn did, but she did what she thought she had to do, and she was extraordinarily successful at it. To be honest, I can’t say that for myself. I’ve flitted from one thing to another, and yes, I will admit, after I heard what Jennlynn was doing a couple times I toyed with the idea myself, but decided not to. I’ve met other girls in the business who haven’t done anywhere near as well with it, so I think it just shows the strength of character that she showed. I know I’m not perfect, there’s no way, you know? I’ve made out all right, but I’ve often been lonely and miserable, too. I don’t doubt that there were days when Jennlynn felt the same way, but she made more out of it than I did. Bob, earlier we were talking about our mutual promise from graduation. Don’t think that I was entirely joking. I’ve spent many lonely nights wishing for someone to share my bed, and many of those nights I wished it was you. Bob, if I were to offer you my honor, would you honor my offer?”

“And all night long it was honor and offer,” Scott laughed. “Jeez, Sharon, I saw that one coming a mile off. That one is as old as the hills.”

“Be that as it may, the thing with clichés is that they’re often true,” Sharon laughed. “Tell me, Scott, Sonja, don’t you consider yourselves happily married?”

“Of course I do,” Sonja said. “I can’t imagine any other way to live.”

“Sonja, Sonja,” Sharon said, “Now think about it. I’ve never had that privilege, and I feel as if there’s something that I’ve missed out on. Bob, don’t you feel the same way?”

“Often,” he agreed. “Yeah, Sharon, there have been times that I really miss it. It would change my life considerably, and I have to wonder if it would be worth it. I tend to be pretty much a loner, always have been. I’m happy by myself, with my own interests. I’ve often wondered what it would be like to share them with someone, but I don’t know how well I’d do at it.”

“I have to admit I feel the same way,” she replied. “There have been times I’ve thought of working out an arrangement of some sort with others, but it’s never come to pass. The days of my life are passing, and I sometimes wonder if it may be too late.”

“Well, it’s something to think about,” Bob conceded. “Life goes goofy on you at times, that’s for sure.”

“And that’s the class philosopher talking, folks,” Sharon laughed, just as mercurial as ever. One moment she could be serious, even seemingly depressed, and the next second hyper and teasing. What would a life with her be like, he wondered. It would be interesting, there was no doubt about that. Probably excruciating, when you got right down to it.

“I recall the class,” she continued as he pondered the thought, “When Bob uttered the words that should be engraved on his tombstone, the crowning glory of philosophy, the thing that he really should have a doctorate for saying, which was, as I recall, ‘It doesn’t have to make sense.’”

“Well, you’re right,” he said. “Some things just are, no matter how you’d like them to be different.”

“Are you sure you don’t have a doctorate in philosophy?” she snickered.

“Afraid not,” Bob grinned. “Like I told you earlier, it’s hard to eat a doctorate. It needs too much salt.”

“Oh, you tease,” she laughed. “Bob! A joke! Was that a joke I heard? Of course it was.”

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