Things Worth Remembering by Jackina Stark

sitting beside me.
    I make something of a production of it, pulling out one at a time, reading the label, and handing the gold-wrapped gift to each of them. “Wait,” I say when I hand the first one to Heidi. “Open them together.”
    When
they are all distributed, they tear into the paper, open the boxes, and stare at their bracelets. The looks on their faces tells me I have made a good choice.
    “Whoa,” Jackie says.
    “No kidding,” Heidi says.
    Caitlin runs her finger across her name. “It’s so pretty.”
    I smile, happy with their responses. “I’m so glad you like them.”
    I do not expect the wave of emotion that comes over me. Tears spring to my eyes, and I find it difficult to speak. But I want to say what I’ve been planning. “You’ve been good friends all my life,” I begin, looking at each one of them. “What would I have done without you? Really? I can’t imagine. Thanks for being here for me, thanks for laughter that wouldn’t have been possible without you, and thanks for being in my wedding. I hope we’ll always be in touch, but when we are separated, look at your bracelet and know I’m somewhere in this world, loving you.”
    We sit here unable to move until Heidi yells, “Group hug!”
    Hugging each other, trying not to cry, communicates what we feel as much as anything else could. Leaving for separate colleges was bad enough, but I am the first to get married and change the dynamic forever. It is time for such change, of course—we know that—but we have loved our time together, and letting it go is even harder than I thought it would be.
    Heidi and Caitlin put their bracelets back in their boxes and head across the landing to the guest bedroom and bath, and Jackie and I clean up in mine.
    After our showers, Jackie and I stand in our underwear in front of the mirror, putting on makeup, our hair wrapped in fluffy yellow towels. After we’ve finished our makeup and before we tackle our hair, Jackie asks me to put her bracelet on her. I get it out of the box and clasp it on her wrist. She looks at it and smiles.
    “So,” I say while we comb tangles from our hair, “what were you and Mother discussing for so long?”
    “Just catching up,” Jackie says. “I haven’t seen her in ages.”
    “She said you dropped by when you got home from school.
    That’s not so long ago.”
    “To get my graduation present, and for about a second!”
    “What were you laughing about?”
    Jackie lays her comb down, puts her hand on her hip.
    “Good grief!”
    “I just wondered what you were talking about; that’s all.”
    “I don’t know, Maize. Life.”
    “It looked important.”
    “It did?”
    I refuse to retreat, and Jackie finally tells me about Sam. We finish getting ready about the same time she finishes her story, and she gives me a kiss on the cheek before she heads across the landing to check on Heidi and Caitlin. This rare tenderness, a flesh-and-blood appearance of her sensitive side, almost does me in.
    I don’t know why I couldn’t let it go. Jackie said she had planned to tell me about finding and falling for Sam when Marcus and I got back from our honeymoon. She told me not to say a word to anyone else about it, that this is my weekend. And I won’t. But if Mother knows about Sam, I sure should.

CHAPTER NINE
    Kendy
    “Don’t you look nice.”
    That’s what I hear when I open my eyes and see Paula standing over me. I had almost fallen asleep behind my sunglasses, relaxing on the lounger.
    “You think I look nice?” I ask.
    “Well, your nails certainly do, all twenty of them.”
    I hold up my hands and look at the shiny cranberry nail polish, expertly applied.
    “You’re quite right. That’s thanks to Jackie. I told her all of us were getting the works Saturday, but that didn’t deter her; she said we needed to look great for the rehearsal too, so after lunch, out she came with the box of manicure supplies.”
    “Like old times, huh?” Paula asks, pulling up a