Reconnection

In case you were curious, I have not heard back from Diane. Not that I thought I would. The only surprise is that the letter has not come back stamped "UNDELIVERABLE." At least not yet. Maybe it bounces around between post offices until someone decides that even if it's possible to find the person to whom it's intended it's not worth the effort. Or perhaps the mail carrier delivers it to the address on the envelope without even reading the name and it's up to the people who get it to alert the post office. Maybe the current residents of that address tossed it out with the rest of their junk mail. Maybe Diane got it and tossed it out with the rest of her junk mail, either not remembering or not caring about who the sender was.

What does it matter, anyway? What would come of it if she got it and she did reply? She lives 1,000 miles away; it's not like she was going to invite me to lunch.

Whatever sparked my memory of Diane has not disappeared. She made a cameo appearance in a dream a couple of nights ago. I saw her at a party. Her face might have aged some but her legs looked just like they did in the yearbook photo of the girls track team, right down to the shorts. I told her she looked the same as she did in high school. Maybe I only thought that and didn't say it. I can't remember for sure and maybe you've noticed that the contents of dreams are tough to go back and verify later.

I don't understand the need to look backwards, to recollect and reconnect, but I'm not the only one who has it. I've visited classmates.com and seen how many of my former high school colleagues are listed. I don't want to contact them badly enough to pay the membership fee so there's a limit to my curiosity but it's there.