Pete’s birthday was Thursday, and he decided to take a vacation day. (I had to work.) In the afternoon, a strange car appeared in our driveway, with California plates. A family of five piled out…friends he hadn’t laid eyes on in six years, since we had visited them in southern California.

M.A. and Dorian hadn’t changed a lot, but their kids had. The oldest, who looks like a teenage Kate Hudson, is almost 16. When we had last been together, she and Moon played “Restaurant” and served us pretend food. The boys are now 14 and 12. Young men.

M.A. and Dorian asked if my office was very far away. “It’s only five minutes from here,” Pete told them. He had a sneaky idea…

He sent the daughter, Jenna, into my office. She’s about 5’7″ and could easily pass for 18. “Are you the admissions person?” she asked. “Yes, can I help you?” I answered.

“I’m interested in going to school here. Could I have a catalog?”

“Sure!” I jumped up to get one. “I can show you around the school, if you have time.”

“I’ll take one of your business cards, too,” she said. “And I’ll write down my name and phone number for you.” (At this point, she had fooled me too well, and was trying to figure out how to get out of the school tour.)
I gave her a sticky note. She wrote her name and phone number.

I recognized her name. “Are you …?” I blurted, thinking, ohmigod, what a bizarre coincidence that she wants to come all the way from California to go to school here!

Then Pete, M.A. and Dorian jumped into the doorway from where they had been listening. I shrieked. Good thing the boss was on vacation.

We did a bit of catching up, and decided to get together Friday. I met M.A. and Jenna at the mall — they had errands to do. At around 2 p.m., we called the men of our families to meet us for lunch.

Moon is already asking me when we can go to California again. And she’s figured out that there are some pretty good colleges in southern Cal. (USC-Sunnydale is purely fictional, though.)