Maria Deluca Guerin looked at her friend with a sigh. She had come over as soon as she got home from her book signing in Hondo. Seeing the invitation for their reunion, she knew it would provoke memories in Max and knew she had to come over since all her children were busy for the night and Michael was up north working on a case; she had time to kill.
“Are you kidding? Miss a chance to show our classmates that I wasn’t white trash and I made something of myself and that I am not stuck in a small town being a waitress. That I am successful, of course I am going” she smiled.
It was true that in Maria’s mind, she had struggled for years to come as far as she has.
Graduation had marked a turning point for Maria. Planning to spend a semester working at the Crashdown before starting at the university in Las Cruces, her mother shocked her by eloping with the Sheriff which allowed Maria some assistance from her brand-new step father to do something with her life. So, she immediately set off with her boyfriend to New York.
But Michael had taken badly to New York living and to watching his girlfriend struggle to launch a music career. So before long he was back in Roswell and Michael and Maria were over for good they thought.
Mourning the loss of such a major relationship that had any meaning to her; she sunk in a depression. One last chance before money issues would force her back home; she suddenly got an audition on a show in New York. She struck pay dirt by getting the job. An acting job but it gave her some much-needed money. And it allowed her a stepping stone.
The job lasted just one-month short of a year. Yet Maria wasn’t shocked when the show was cancelled and she was out of a job. With money in the bank dwindling by the day, she focused on getting some more work whether in music or acting. Crumbs came here and there, but nothing substantial came her way once her show was officially off the air. And then her world changed forever when a one-night stand ended up costing Maria more than just the knowledge that she had trusted the wrong man when she became pregnant. Single and alone in New York with very little job prospects for at least nine months; she ended up back home in New Mexico with her mother, stepfather and stepbrother Kyle.
A baby boy was born. After thinking of adoption; she ended up keeping him and naming him
Jacob or Jake for short.
Faced with her son’s arrival; she was forced to decide.
New York or even Los Angeles were beckoning her and the baby. But during her pregnancy; she had reconnected with her ex.
Maria hadn’t been convinced the rekindled feelings would last more than the length of her pregnancy, but once her son came along. Michael seemed to form an instant connection with the baby and before he and Maria knew it; they were both making a commitment to a life together, with an engagement and then marriage following in short order. All the while settling into a small home in their hometown in which they raised their little boy.
“I knew you would,” Max said. “And you were never white trash Maria. You were just a little eccentric for Roswell’s taste.”
“Nice one Evans, nice.” she smiled. “So, are you okay?”
“Of course, I am” Max smiled.
“Where is my goddaughter?” Maria asked as she looked around and saw no budding teenager.
“Where she is most days when she’s not in school, working!” Max said. “Although I think she was planning on studying with Sue before her shift and while she didn’t exactly say it, I assume Jake is somehow involved. How is Jake doing?”
“My son is making me feel old,” Maria smiled. “He’s eighteen now Max. Where did the years go?”
“It is unbelievable isn’t it,” Max smiled. “I think of Grace as she is about to turn 16. I can’t imagine what it might feel like to know Jake is facing graduation and college. Does he know where he’s going yet?”
“He applied to NYU, Stanford, Boston University and Las Cruces” Maria frowned “He’s waiting to find out. I am going to miss my baby Max. He’s so close to leaving.”
“He’ll always be your baby Maria,” Max smiled. “But you have do have others at home you know. Four, in fact.”
“I know. But he’ll always be my first, my baby.” Maria sighed. “You’re going to have to face this very soon Evans as that girl of yours is going to have the world after her. “
“I know,” Max sighed at the memories that the mere suggestion of his daughter conquering the world and the heartbreak that was mixed in with the idea brought to his mind. “She reminds me of her mother every single day.”
“She definitely is a picture of Liz,” Maria smiled at the memories that flooded her own mind of her friend.
*******
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven Medical Centre
Passing a medical chart to the nurse on duty in a middle of a Code Blue relating to another patient she wasn’t responsible for; the doctor in a long white coat walked down the hallway. Making side stops to check in on patients on her way to her office. Reassuring herself that all her charges were doing as well as can be expected given their individual conditions.
Finally, in her office twenty minutes later; she collapsed in her chair. Checking her computer to see what her appointments were for the following day; she assured herself that she could go home.
Closing her computer and then locking her desk and file cabinets; she picked up her purse and left the office. She was officially off duty.
Smiling at a nurse she passed by as she walked to the elevator. She pushed the button for the elevator to come to her. Getting in, she went down the parking garage where she walked towards her car.
The radio was on as she drove north outside the city to the small town where he home was located. The commute could be tiring but she liked the tiny town feel and knew she was safe.
Safety was very important to her.
The song finished and a talk program came back on, talking about Reunions. The question of the hour was
whether anyone had ever gone to their high school reunion and whether there was still a need to hold them in the age of Facebook?
She thought about it. And wondered if she had?
She doubted it. But then how did she know? She had no memory of the life she once led. For fourteen years, she had been suffering with amnesia. No memory of her childhood and only a few tiny flashbacks but nothing major.
It festered in her mind as she continued to drive as she turned off the highway and turned into her town.
Taking the main street; she turned made a turn at the candy store and went down her street before stopping to open the gate to her home. She always did it manually so not to let anyone get access to her home without her knowledge. Getting back into her car, she went through the gate and parked her car before closing the gate.
She opened her door and called out, “I am home.”
“Mom,” came a voice of her daughter Alexandra as she came down the stairs from her bedroom upstairs. “You’re home early for a change.”
“There were no patients who desperately needed my attention. I thought I would spend the evening with you and Carrie. Where is she?”
“Carrie had a dance class after school. She should be home in a half an hour or so,” the young brunette said. She was a picture copy of her mother, “You really are free tonight, no patients?” she asked.
“Yes,” her mother said. “I have the night off. Someone is covering for me with any emergencies” she said as she smiled at her 13-year-old daughter and thought about how Alexandra and her twin sister Carrie had been her saving grace after waking up from that coma only to find out she was without her memory. Being told you were a Jane Doe to authorities and that you had been comatose for two months and now were pregnant on top of it. That had been big news for her. And she worried for the safety of her babies; but they had come out of it with no ill effects despite being born a few months premature and yet the twins surprised all experts and blossomed into two very happy and healthy teenagers.
“How was school sweetheart?” Alexandra’s mother asked the teenager as they walked into the kitchen and her mother could see that there was a pot on the stove and cooking away to almost completion, “I see you started dinner?”
“It’s nothing,” the teen said shyly. “I didn’t know whether you would be able to be home for dinner and Caroline is usually hungry once she’s done with her dance class.”
“I appreciate you doing this for us sweetheart as I know I depend on you and your sister for a lot around here when I am working,” Alexandra’s mother said with a hug to her daughter.
“It’s really nothing special,” the teenager said. “It was pretty easy in fact,” she smiled as they heard the back door open and they glanced towards it.
“Beth” came the voice from the doorway. Alexandra and her mother focused on the newcomer as they found Serena Rogers coming into the kitchen with her daughter Carrie close behind her. “I didn’t know you would be home when I offered Carrie a drive home after class.”
“I am not that bad, am I?” Beth asked as she looked at her other daughter who came over to give her a hug and yet Beth knew that she had put Alexandra and Caroline through a lot with her career. Starting when she came out of the coma and she found out that she had a brain for science and once she was on the road to recovery she decided to follow that path to completion as she could after much studying certify herself as a doctor. And as it turned out, she was an excellent one which often made her wonder whether she had been a doctor in her prior life? And how much of her knowledge had already existed? “How was dance class?” she asked Carrie.
Alexandra and Caroline may be identical twins but their personalities were different as night and day as Alexandra was into school and anything to do with academics and Caroline was more in sports and particularly now, dance. Most semesters she did as well in school as her sister but Carrie was more creative and imaginative than her twin. If she wasn’t dancing, she was writing. Both girls were crafty and unique and they had given their mother so much happiness from the moment they were born. “Fun,” Carrie smiled. “We have a dance recital in two weeks Mom. Can you come?”
“It’s already on my calendar,” Beth smiled. “I wouldn’t miss it. I am sure Serena’s boys will be there so you will have a big cheering section.”
“They won’t want to miss it,” Serena chuckled. “And plus, I usually make them attend, when they rather play basketball or baseball” she said to laughter from the girls.
The same age as Beth, Serena had been an intern on Beth’s case the day she woke up in the hospital and they had gravitated to each and became close friends and grew in their medical careers and unlike her friend who was still based out of a hospital Serena was now operating her own practice in the town where they all lived as she had wanted to get out of the big hospital setting and once she was married and given birth to a second son, she took the opportunity even though it had meant leaving her best friend and a more stable work environment. A friendship had blossomed when they had gravitated towards each other as Beth recovered in the hospital from the coma as she had been on complete bed rest until the twins were born; Beth had nowhere to go so she stayed at the hospital where she got a leg up in her medical studies as she witnessed the medical field first hand and found a lasting friendship with Serena.
“Do you want to stay for dinner?” Beth asked as she helped set the table while Alexandra finished with dinner.
“No. Keith and the boys are waiting for me at home. So, I might as well as go and join them. Jonathan has his basketball game this weekend if you have free time to come and enjoy a bunch of rambunctious kids.”
“I am sure the girls will be there as a cheering section for Jonathan,” Beth smiled as she witnessed her twins nodding their heads with great relish as they got dinner on the table. “I’ll have to check my calendar as I think I might have to work on Saturday this week as I could be filling in for another doctor down in the Emergency department. If I am then we’ll see how it goes.”
Serena nodded as she hugged the girls and smiled at Beth and soon let herself out of the house which left Beth to head back to the kitchen and the dinner table and the wonderful dinner that Alexandra had prepared for her mother and sister.
Exiting the gate, Serena left the home that had the name
Evans engraved on the mailbox.