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I felt tears hit the backs of my eyes and I started deep breathing.
Kitty Sue looked like she was deep breathing too.
I heard Ally deep breathing beside me.
Kitty Sue leaned forward and opened the box.
“Let me see…” she began, and started pulling stuff out of the box—trinkets, costume jewelry, what looked like ticket stubs to concerts and movies. I watched these treasures emerge in fascinated silence.
Then she pulled out an old, yellowed envelope.
“Here it is,” she said, and without hesitation, she opened it, pulled out a piece of paper, unfolded it and started reading. “I, Katherine Maria Basore and I, Kathryn Susannah Milligan do solemnly swear to stay best friends forever. No matter what. Even if Curt Zacharus asks Kitty Sue to go with him even though Katie is in love with him and wants to kiss him with tongues. This is the strength of our Bestest Best Friendom. We will get married in a double ceremony and live in houses with white picket fences that are right next door to each other. When we have children, they will play together, and one day they will get married so we can be related for real. The End.”
I was back to not breathing and I could feel Ally was not breathing beside me.
Kitty Sue stopped reading and turned the paper around to show me the flowery, young girl script on the front. She pointed to some brown stains at the bottom.
“Katie wrote this and we signed it in blood, kind of,” Kitty Sue explained. “We poked our fingers with pins and then stuck them together in a blood pact, then mushed them on the paper.”
My head slowly turned to Ally.
She was breathing again and she was smiling.
“Well!” Kitty Sue said sharply and jumped up. “That’s done, then.” She was rushing through putting the paper back in the envelope and she laid it on the ottoman. “Gotta go. Things to do. I’ll leave the box.”
“Kitty Sue—” I said, standing up.
“Mom—” Ally stood too.
Kitty Sue was headed to the door. “Don’t forget, barbeque at Hank’s on Saturday.”
Damn.
Lee and I were never going to go to Barolo Grill.
I shook off thoughts of delicious truffle risotto and followed Kitty Sue. “Kitty Sue, wait.”
She stopped at the door and turned. Tears were shimmering in her eyes and the sight of them made me freeze. I didn’t recall ever seeing Kitty Sue cry.
Ever.
Ally halted beside me.
Everyone was silent.
“Sometimes,” Kitty Sue broke the silence, “I forget and pick up the phone to call her. Still. After all these years…it seems like just yesterday.”
I swallowed and Kitty Sue began to get fuzzy as I looked at her, but I could tell she was looking at me too.
“She’d be so happy,” fuzzy Kitty Sue whispered.
Before anyone could say anything, she opened the door and was gone.
Ally and I watched her through the window as she got in her car and took off.
“Do you think she’ll be okay driving?” I asked, and my voice sounded funny so I cleared my throat.
“We’ll call her in a bit, check on her.” Ally’s voice sounded funny, too.
