room service. They remembered being asked to leave restaurants in their youth because their laughing and giggling bothered people, and being older would not stop them from doing the same thing. Besides, this time, they knew there would be some sobbing as well.
They ordered what they used to order. Two pizzas, both loaded with everything, except half of one was meatless for Bree, as it had been since high school.
“Doesn’t it feel as if we have never been apart?” Cindy asked, looking at two friends she had known almost her entire life.
They had pulled a table between the two beds and put the pizzas, sodas, and stacks of napkins on it. Marsha sat on one bed, her legs crossed, and Cindy and Bree sat on the edge of the other bed.
Tipping her head back to get the long string of cheese hanging off her pizza into her mouth, Marsha mumbled, “Yes and no.”
All three fell silent, thinking how long it had been since they had been together.
It was Bree who broke the silence. “I’m sorry.”
She didn’t need to explain what she was sorry for, but there was a long silence before Marsha asked,”Why did you leave and then stay away, Bree?”
Bree shook her head. “I can’t tell you. I’m sorry I can’t, I just can’t.”
Cindy put her arm around her friend, and Bree let herself lean in for a moment.
“Well, it doesn’t matter now, does it? We’re together again, and besides, we have a mystery to solve.”
Marsha watched as panic flashed in Bree’s hazel eyes and wondered if this was a mystery that Bree was afraid to solve. It was understandable. It had to be hard to worry if your husband was who you thought he was and what secret he had kept all these years.
Maybe she doesn’t want to know, Marsha thought. Perhaps she is still running from the truth. Bree could be lying about what Paul said. She’s the one who led us here. Maybe we are on a wild goose chase.
But Marsha knew Bree well. It would go against everything Bree believed in to lie to them. Bree had never lied to them before. Yes, she ran away, but probably to keep from lying about something.
Marsha understood that. Hadn’t she done the same thing? Maybe she hadn’t disappeared the way Bree and Paul did, but she had kept away to keep her own secret.
As if she knew what Marsha was thinking, Bree said, “I do want to understand why Paul wrote those letters. He wanted me to know something. Something he was afraid to tell me when he was alive.
“And yes, I am terrified to find out what it is. Was Paul the man I thought I married? Was the life we lived a lie? It didn’t feel like one. But what if I am wrong, and he wasn’t who I thought he was?”
“And what if he was?” Cindy said. “What if he kept from you whatever this secret is because he was afraid to tell you, afraid of how you would feel about it? But if it happened before you met him, then I think he should have trusted you with it.”
Marsha nodded. “Yes, perhaps he should have, but Bree, you know how it is. Telling someone something you have kept secret for a long time can make it into a bigger thing than it is. Maybe that’s what happened with Paul.”
Bree gave Marsha a long look, and for a moment, Marsha was afraid that she had revealed something she hadn’t meant to reveal. But then Bree looked away, and Cindy said, “And now he wants you to know. He could have left it alone, and he didn’t. Perhaps that means it’s going to be a good thing for you.
“And if nothing else, he has given us a gift of getting us all together. April is with Judith in Spring Falls, and we’ll see them when we find what we need to find here.”
Bree patted Cindy on the hand as she smiled at Marsha and said, “That will be wonderful, won’t it?” before standing and heading to the bathroom.
When she was gone, Cindy whispered to Marsha, “She doesn’t seem thrilled about going to Spring Falls, does she? Doesn’t she want to see Judith and April?”
“Maybe what she ran away from is still there?”
“Probably. Or at least Bree is afraid that it is. Is what you ran from still there, Marsha?”
“I didn’t run away. I ran towards. You know why. I wanted to be a Broadway sensation, singing and dancing on stage forever. New York was fun and exciting, but I wasn’t as good as I thought I was. However, even though I was never the sensation I had hoped to be, I did do some small things.”
“Did you love it as much as you expected?”
“More. I loved it more than I expected. But the parts I could play became fewer and fewer, and I gave up. Moved away and started a small dance school. Made a living.”
“A living, but not a life?”
Marsha uncrossed her legs and started clearing the table. Cindy joined her, neither one of them speaking. When they finished, Marsha looked down at her friend. People always teased them when they were together.
Tall Marsha. almost as tall as Judith, and short Cindy. She wondered if it had bothered Cindy to be teased about being so small. Cindy and April were the short ones in the group, although April was the smallest. Did they mind?
She had never asked. Maybe that was why she hadn’t had a life. She had never asked others how they felt. Yes, she thought about how they felt, but never asked.
Perhaps that was why Cindy was right about her. She had made a living, but not a life. She was more worried about her feelings, worried that people didn’t care enough to be there for her when she needed them. So she set herself apart so they wouldn’t let her down. She let them down instead.
Marsha looked at Cindy, her blue eyes still clear and kind, wanting, as always, to be helpful. Marsha sighed and looked away before answering.
“You’re right, Cindy. It was a living, but not a life. But I want one now.”
Bree had come out of the bathroom, heard what Marsha said, and reached out for both Cindy and Marsha’s hands before saying, “Me too. I made a living. And I had a life with Paul, but it’s gone, and it’s possible that what I thought was real was all a lie. So, me, too, Marsha, I want to build a new life now.”
“Well,” Cindy said, laughing and breaking the somber mood, “The pact lives on!”
“And solves mysteries together,” Marsha added.
“And solves mysteries together,” Bree agreed.
And even though her head was pounding because of the fear she felt at what they would find, she didn’t care. She’d been living in the dark too long.
Yes, it was time to build a new life for herself, and this time she would do it with her friends.