Apologies to my Jewish readers if I got the details of Hanukkah wrong. This lapsed Catholic did the best he could, but Sunday school was an awfully long time ago!
The sun was long gone as Annie stepped out of the cold and into the lobby of the community center. She wasn't surprised to find only one event listed on the waffleboard just inside the door: "Christmas Pageant Committee Meeting, Friday, December 7, 7 PM". Annie checked her watch. 6:55 - despite the lousy traffic, she'd made it! With a sense of triumphant relief, she walked down the hall to the fluorescent light beacon where she could hear other committee members chatting.
Annie was weary and crampy, but she was delighted to be doing her part for the big event. Where she had little doubt other twentysomethings saw a lame suburban ritual, Annie saw a wonderful chance to do her part to help kids who hadn't yet escaped a lousy situation like she had. She hadn't been the first to suggest a multicultural event for the holidays, but she had been the one to call for a drive to buy toys for the city kids who'd be visiting them for the evening. With the plan coming to fruition, she'd come to love the committee meetings like she never would have guessed back when she'd first volunteered on a lark months before.
Her spirits were further burnished when she heard Rhonda Greene's throaty laugh as she approached the room. "Oh, Reggie sure will be helping out!" Rhonda was saying. "He'd never miss out on the girls from the old neighborhood looking up to him, you know!"
"So you won't have to bribe him like I did with my two," Mandy Barker replied. "It's lovely to see him again, anyway, Rhonda."
See him again? Reggie was Rhonda's son, and he'd been away at his first semester of college. Annie had bonded with him like a beloved older sister over the summer, and she'd missed him since then. Was he home for the holidays?
As Annie stepped into the warm conference room and brush the quickly-melting snowflakes out of her creamy blonde ringlets, she saw that he was. "Annie!" came his boyish yelp from across the room. She had just enough time to exchange hellos with Rhonda and Mandy before Reggie bounded across the room and leapt into her arms. "Hey!"
"Hi, Reggie!" Annie exclaimed, returning his embrace. "I've missed you! How's college?"
"It's fine but it ain't home," Reggie said.
"Isn't home, Reginald, and let's not suffocate poor Annie," said Rhonda.
"Oh, it's fine, Rhonda," Annie said. Turning to the two older women, she added, "Remember that feeling of coming home for Christmas your freshman year? Such a sentimental relief?"
"Honestly, I don't, Annie," said Rhonda. "But I'm glad he does."
Annie herself hadn't experienced that at all either -- she could only recall wishing she could as she put up with her mother's usual nastiness every Christmas through college -- but she'd learned to pretend otherwise in this cozy community where everyone seemed so much more well-adjusted than her own family had been. But that was what she loved about Park Meadows, and she was more than happy to tell a white lie or two to help along her belonging there.
No one brought that sense of yearning to belong out more than Mandy Barker and her husband, Tony, who appeared at her side at that moment with a handful of cookies and a hello for Annie and Reggie. "Thanks for coming out tonight, both of you," he said. "I think we'll need all the moral support we can get for the pageant."
"Are those fools still making a stink about it?" asked Rhonda, casting a wary eye across the room. "What's wrong with some people?"
"I think you know the answer to that better than we do, Rhonda," Mandy said.
"But that's why we're so happy you ran for chair," added Tony. "Congratulations again, by the way."
"Thank you," said Rhonda. Turning to her son, she said, "Reggie, come help me with the agenda."
"She knows the answer better than we do?" came the sarcastic voice of Mrs. Reed from behind, and Annie turned to see her stern face glaring at the Barkers. Her son, Daryle, also home from college for the first time, smiled hello to Annie but was careful as usual to say nothing when his mother had the floor.
"Oh, relax, Pamela," said Mandy. "Rhonda and I are friends, and it isn't as though she doesn't know they're one of the only black families in town. Or that her getting elected chair of the committee is going to rub some folks the wrong way."
"No one here, though," snapped Mrs. Reed. "I, for one, don't see color, and I'd appreciate it if you at least don't talk about it like that if you do. We don't need any racial tension here." With that she turned on her heel and marched to the waiting seats.
Annie looked back at the Barkers. "Wow, I'm so sorry," she murmured.
"Don't be," said Mandy, reaching out to take Mandy's hand and give it an affectionate squeeze. "I've known Pamela Reed for fifteen years. That had nothing to do with me or the Greenes, Annie. She's just a very angry woman."
"I wonder why she volunteered for this committee?" said Tony. Turning back to Annie, he added, "But to be fair, I've been wondering that about you, too, Annie. It's wonderful that you have, but we mostly see parents and kids here."
"It's a chance to help families enjoy the holiday season, and that means I get to enjoy it with them," Annie said. "It means even if I'm on my own for Christmas, I'm not alone."
"Excellent attitude, Annie," said Mandy. "Speaking of which, if you'd like to come for dinner on Christmas..."
"If you don't already have plans," added Tony. "Just in case you're stuck here."
"That's sweet," Annie said. Tamping down the temptation to explain it wasn't a matter of being stuck anywhere, she added, "I wouldn't want to horn in on your family, though."
"We'll have others over, Annie," Mandy said. "You wouldn't be imposing at all. Just let us know if you're coming over in time to set a place for you, okay?"
"Thanks, Mandy! I will." As Annie was feeling a bad case of the usual envy she felt for the Barkers coming on, she nodded at the snack table to excuse herself, and retired to the table to fix a mug of hot chocolate.
It was no use in denying she was thrilled with the invitation, for she had no desire to spend Christmas alone. But she also wasn't sure she wanted to spend it with the Barkers. With their two lovely children and their palatial home on Vassar Circle, the Barkers never failed to give off a too-good-to-be-true vibe, or to trigger Annie's proneness to self-pity. Two years on her own in Park Meadows, among the well-to-do families she'd been envying all her life, had provided her with plenty of practice in tamping down that habit. But the Barkers, as much as she loved them all, did not make that easy.