It was the first time any of them had been on stage before. Well, on stage and in front of a live audience in any event. They had grown up together in the small group of homes to the east of town, really depending on one another for entertainment more than the TV, radio, or internet. They ran through the woods, harassed the farm animals, and in general caused their parents quite a bit of grief. Bobby was the oldest but he wasn’t the leader, not by a long shot. John was the leader but he was also the smallest of the group. Drew was the one everyone looked to for the plan, in the event that they had to plan something. Vincent had tools, his dad was a mechanic and a maker, and he knew how to use them. Bert was the second girl of this little group and the one that kind of held them all together. She lived on the biggest farm in the area, not that she or her folks had any ideas about farming, but the huge piece of land gave them all the running room they needed. Unlike what you’re thinking, they didn’t have some catchy name or club that they called themselves. They weren’t the Five Fingers or the Farmhouse Gang or anything like that. They were simply a group of kids that fate threw together before they hit puberty and they managed to stay close through the turmoil of their teen years and beyond.
As middle school gave way to high school, the games the group played changed as well. No longer were they playing make believe Star Wars games or trying to collect as many bugs as they could in the afternoon. High school meant they were just hanging out and trying to help each other through the minefield of high school social circles. Bobby had an attention problem, John was picked on by variety of groups, Drew fit in very well all over campus, Vincent could not get his mind around the academic side of school, and Bert was just trying skate through un noticed. These issues seemed to disappear when they got together on weekends and during breaks. Romance never quelled their connection with one another, nor were the assorted boyfriends and girlfriends ever really connected to the group. It was a comfortable connection for all of them, something that felt like family and home and love and safety and security and happiness without being any of those things. There were ups and downs to be sure; depression was as common amongst them as with any of their peers, but they knew how to pull one another up and support each other. Then high school gave way to college and they all prepared to move on without each other.
Each of them graduated without any real issues, although Vincent needed some help from his folks to pull that off, and made their plans to really ‘start’ their lives. They all went in different directions, with Bobby and Drew going to very nice private schools, John and Bert headed for state colleges, and Vincent thought he was heading for the Air Force but a failed physical brought that idea crashing to a halt. Instead, Vincent went to a small school to find something to do. Holidays and summers enabled this little group to maintain their connections and maintain them they did. It’s no that they didn’t form solid relationships during this period of time, it’s just the power of their friendship, formed so early in their lives, that just kept them coming back together. Through the ups and the downs of their college and post-grad careers the stayed close and continued providing the support that old friends can. They got rolling in their careers, really getting their lives started this time, and still the friendships stayed strong. Bobby went into architecture and design, working for a residential firm in Portland, cranking out starter homes and housing developments. John got through a solid law school and moved into an associate position with a firm in Sacramento doing consulting work on environmental law. Drew failed out of the private college just before her senior year and got her degree from a directional state university that was nearby. The degree did not carry the cachet of the diploma she wanted but she landed a job doing cop writing in Seattle, it could have certainly ended worse than that. She learned the hard way that she and drinking did not get along. Vincent, much to his surprise, worked his way through an electrical engineering degree and a computer science masters. He was working for an automotive engineering firm in LA, building control systems for the next generation of SUVs. Bert surprised no one, not that she was trying to, by graduating early and becoming a high school English teacher and track in rural eastern Washington. Still, after all that college had shown them and the friends they made there, this group still managed to find the time and put in the effort to get together every year for a week of catching up and making plans to save the world. Twenty years had passed since those first fall days of getting to know each other and they still all reveled in each other’s company and camaraderie.
There were marriages and divorces. There were tragedies and successes. There were deaths that affected each of them in their own ways. But the strength of their friendship endured. Late night phone calls from one to another as they tried to make sense of the world and the people in it. Long-winded and misunderstood email chains that spilled salt into old wounds and created some new ones. They each depended on one another for different things in some respects, but the same thing in general. They were a family. Maybe not in blood or paper, but in the emotional bonds with one another, they certainly were.
Family is a funny thing. Some have it thrust upon them by people that would just as soon not see if it wasn’t for Mom and Dad. Others spend their lives looking for it in places not likely to provide it; like the inside of a bottle or in a chemical reaction. There are some that try to buy it and find that money can buy a great many things but it falls short when searching for family. Then there are these five kids. They were just looking for someone to play with, someone to hang around with, and someone that wasn’t going to make fun of them. They found those things, but they also found a family that just waiting in the wings. There was no blood relation, there was no paper binding them together, but there was a family created in the hearts and minds of those kids that was as strong as any other family out there.
What happens next for these five souls, who knows, but they know that they will have each other to lean on regardless of what comes down the road to meet them.
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