Things to Do in Denver...

That silenced her good and her mouth hung open nearly as big as the ripped out engine mount under the wing of our plane. This last weekend had been our twentieth year school reunion, and undoubtedly the reason she was in Houston and carrying our old yearbook. I had not attended… just didn't feel the need to go.

Sure I was a Dr. now, a PhD rather than an MD, but still that had to count as a 'success' in the win or fail at life column. I almost went, but in the end I decided there was no one I really missed or wanted to see. I took my mom and dad out to dinner that night instead.

"I… I… don't remember you at all. What's your name?" She went scrambling for her yearbook again to look me up.

"Sorry, you're going to have to guess it now." I quipped. "My feelings are completely hurt that one of my favorite people doesn't remember me in the slightest. I'm cut to the bone… utterly devastated." I put on my best pout.

She scrambled through the pages of the Senior Class like a woman possessed, calling out names, but I could tell that she was just guessing. In the end it turned into a game of twenty questions.

"Nope, I'm not Scott Raddey. Yes, I did take Saunders for English my Sophomore and Junior years, but not in the same section with you. He died of cancer the summer before our Senior year. No, I never took a drama class. I was an extra in Lil' Abner, but that was just a terrible mistake that I didn't repeat." And so on.

By the time our plane finally did taxi to the gate poor Kathy was in a panic and her last bit of patience was exhausted. I decided to take a little pity on her before the plane unloaded and I'd likely not ever see her again.

"Ok, big hint. We played tennis together a lot that last spring and I had a locker nearly directly opposite yours for two years." That got her brain going once again.

"You're Max Simpson! But, but… you were so short then! You look so completely different now – I'd have never recognized you!"

"Stuff happens. I grew later… a lot!" I had been a short little guy in those days and never started my full growth spurt until after school when I grew at least a foot in the next five years. I also had longish red hair that was well onto my shoulders in those days. Nowadays I keep it cut short and can't stand it if it even touches my ears for some reason. How times change!

"Oh My God!" She squeaked and spent the next five minutes while we were parked at the end of the runway looking up my name in the back index and finding every single photo of me in the book. Sure enough the face matched… if nothing much else.

My bona-fides proven, we spent the next few minutes while our plane finally finished taxiing to our terminal gate hastily catching up on the last twenty years.

"I'm a Professor of Medieval History," I told her, "specializing in English economics and trade from the Dark Ages to the Fourteenth Century. I recently published book on this topic, written while I was at Oxford. It is considered a masterpiece and sold dozens of copies, but it's also a sure-fire cure for insomnia. Maritally, I'm a two-time loser. My first wife ran off about ten years ago with the husband of her best friend. My last wife three years ago saved everyone time by just running off with her best friend instead. Frankly, of the two experiences, getting left for another woman did hurt my masculinity a bit more."

"Ouch!" She replied in genuine sympathy.

"Jeff and I married but soon divorced. We were both too young and not ready for it. I don't think Jeff has still ever grown up enough to be really ready for it. He's been divorced three times but is doing ok now and has three children with his fourth wife. I remarried about ten years ago to a wonderful man, but we're having… issues right now. We're very separated – we'll probably divorce, but it's not definite… we just don't know. We've been apart for nearly a year and neither one of us have filed the paperwork for a divorce yet. We're still friendly and do dinner with benefits sometimes but the core problems remain unresolved."

The main core problem apparently was that Kathy was a workaholic. She was a very highly paid and senior VP for a big Hollywood entertainment media company and spent much of her life on the road. Her husband Rick was ready for her to settle down and start a family but Kathy didn't want to give up either the fat income or the fun of dealing with her famous Hollywood 'A'-list clients. She had to admit that her biological clock was ticking rather loudly and it was getting to be 'now or never' time for having children.

In a way it was just like High School all over again. Kathy had been the smart and pretty hanger-on to the rich and privileged kids at school. Today twenty years later, the routine hadn't changed much, if at all. Sure she made a good living, but it was completely dependent upon 'her betters', other richer and more powerful people. I mentioned this to her as a joke, but I really ought to have thought this through and just kept my mouth shut. She nearly slapped me, but caught herself and turned away from me. She didn't utter a word or even look at me until our plane had docked and the cabin staff unlocked the door for us to egress.

Kathy was the first passenger out the door and she didn't even look at me as she left.

Yeah, I should have kept my fool mouth shut. What I had said had been the truth, and for many women that is the last thing that they ever want to hear.

Now I was in Denver and feeling completely dead in both body and soul, alone, and trapped once again in my malaise.