Notelet VII: Standing Bare

Claudine Miller looked over the reunion invitation she had come home to meet. The silvery embossed A5 paper with black sans serif lettering together with its matching flap envelope was beautiful. The class of '89 was itself beautiful. Seeing the invitation brought back many a fond memories to Claudine. The three times 'dance queen' went down memory lane. She remembered her girls. They were 7 in total. Lesley, Maude, Roselyn, Summer, Verona, Ariel and of course her. They were known as the wonder girls. Walking together, studying together, on the newspaper team together even to spending most weekends with each other. They couldn't get enough of each other it seemed. Sitting at her makeup station in her basement flat she reminisced about the time they went to the shopping centre to spy on Verona's secret crush to ascertain if he had a girlfriend or not. It turned out that he did. What a bummer for Vi. Now at 42 she thought how silly of them to have gone out in action men costumes to hid their identity leaving their hair uncovered. Those were good times.

Life had taken a twist since high school. She initially deferred her University entry for what at the time she thought would be a year. Then it became two and then she was expelled according to the University rules. "If only her father had not defrauded the tax office and paid them their due, she would have been financially buoyant", she thought. Poppy as she fondly called him was doing time in jail for evading taxes and without him who would fund her tuition and living expenses. She was reduced to making a living immediately working in the local factory as a cotton weaver while the other six 'dream girls' were living the dream. A dream that was now a thing of the past for her. She tried to push herself through nightschool but quit as she was just too exhausted with the factory work and couldn't concentrate. '12 years to the day Poppy was imprisoned and I still work at the local factory. Worst still I now clean schools at dawn to earn more money and I still can't make ends meet', she sighed. How could she face the 'dream girls'? What would she tell everyone?

Looking at herself in the reflection of her makeup station mirror, she saw a woman shaken but not stirred, beaten but not overcome, tossed by the winds of life but not dead. 'In the 3 months to this reunion, I Claudine will rewrite my story. I will no longer stand bare. I will...'

You are quintessentially special,
Love Abba