No way, Charly thought. Could it be? Emotions were tumbling around inside her like old gym shoes in a clothes dryer.

Finally, smiling for the first time since she’d passed that city-limits sign, she crossed the street to the restaurant, pushed the door open and went in.

For a moment or two the sense of déjà vu was so overpowering she felt light-headed. There was the same black-and-white linoleum set in squares, like a checkerboard, and the same Formica-and-chrome tables and counter, the same red plastic seats. Four teenagers-two couples-were crowded into a booth toward the back, boisterously socializing, ignoring an Elton John song playing on the jukebox. In the alcove off to the right near the rest rooms, another teenager was punching and pinging away at a video game. In Charly’s day it had been a pinball machine, but everything else was just as she remembered it, including the fact that in spite of the ceiling fans whirling drunkenly overhead, the air was too warm, and heavy with the smell of frying grease.

Behind the counter a pretty woman with poufy blond hair was busy stocking the glass pie cabinet. When she heard Charly come in she turned half around, her face already lit up with an automatic smile of welcome, and sang out, “Hey, there! You just go on and have a seat, hon, and I’ll be with you in a sec, okay?”

What happened then made Charly feel as if aliens had taken over her body. All of a sudden she felt herself scrunch down and lean over to one side, as if she were trying to see out from behind an invisible obstacle. Those aliens must have taken over her voice, too, because when she spoke it seemed to have gotten a lot louder and higher pitched than her normal adult speaking voice, with a stronger Alabama accent than she’d heard coming out of her own mouth in almost twenty years. “Kelly? Kelly Grace, is that you?”

At that, the blond woman sort of scrunched down herself, and stared at Charly for a second or two. Suddenly her mouth fell open, and she pressed both hands to her chest and gasped, “Oh, my Lawd, I don’t believe it!”

She advanced on Charly with open arms, at the same time cutting loose with a blood-curdling squeal that would have prompted anyone within earshot to immediately dial 911 anywhere in the world, that is, except in the South, where they’re used to that sort of carrying on. It was, in fact, completely ignored by the teenage couples in the back booth and the boy playing video games three feet away.

“Charlene Elizabeth Phelps, is that really you? Oh, my stars, I swear I’m gon’ die. You just come here an’ let me look at you-why, you haven’t changed a bit, not one little bit. Where in the world have you been all these years? Oh, God-my poor heart’s just goin’ like a freight train. Why didn’t you evah write? Oh-oh my, I b’lieve I’m just gon’ have to sit down ’fore I fall down. Charlene Phelps, I swear I could just kill you…”

Although this was all delivered with the accompaniment of laughter, tears and hugs and at a decibel level rivaling that of a factory whistle, and was certainly all the welcome any prodigal son-or daughter-could have asked for and more, Charly didn’t let it go to her head. Since Kelly Grace had been her best friend all those years ago and was prone to emotional outbursts even then, it was pretty much what she’d expected.

“It’s Charly now,” she said when she could get a word in edgewise. “I’m sorry I didn’t write…” Well. okay, she couldn’t help but be a little choked up.

Kelly Grace waved that away as if it were just an old fly making a nuisance of itself. “Oh, hey, don’t you say a thing, not a thing. I know how it is, I really do-I’m terrible about that myself. But you coulda let me know you were comin’!”

“Well,” Charly mumbled, “it was kind of on the spur of the moment.”

Kelly Grace wiped her own hands on her apron and grabbed for Charly’s. “Well, you just tell me all about everything, this minute. Charly, you say? Oh, that’s cute, I really do like that-but you know I am never goin’ be able to call you anything but Charlene. Come on over here and sit. Are you hungry? Can I get you something to drink? How ’bout some sweet tea? Oh, Lord-you used to like cherry Cokes, remember? Do you still drink those things?”

“Maybe if you put a little bourbon in it,” Charly said, not entirely facetiously.

Kelly Grace laughed and fanned herself with her hand. “Oh, my, you haven’t changed a bit.” She cocked her head sideways and studied Charly with the frankly critical appraisal permitted lifelong friends. “But look at you, there’s not a gray hair on your head!”

“And never will be,” declared Charly, “while there’s breath left in my body.”

Kelly Grace laughed some more. “Well, now, I hear that. Let’s hear it for Clairol. No, but I swear, you look just the same as you did back in high school.”

“So do you,” Charly lied as she slid into a booth.

“Go on, I do not. I’ve put on at least twenty pounds since the divorce-”

“Oh, Kelly, I’m sorry.”

“Well, yeah, me too. It’s been a while, now, though. I’m okay with it-things work out for the best, you know?”

“Did you and…?” Charly made a rotating motion with her hand.

“Bobby Hanratty,” Kelly Grace filled in for her, leaning against the opposite bench with her arms folded across her plump waist. Her smile, the dimples, were the ones Charly remembered. It was her eyes that were older-reminiscent and a little sad. She shrugged. “Yeah…you know how it was. We got married right after we graduated. Probably shouldn’t have-we were real young and stupid. Had our babies right away, too…” Her eyes suddenly darkened, and she caught herself and blurted, “Oh, God, Charlene, I’m just so sorry. I didn’t mean-”

Charly grimaced. “Jeez, Kelly Grace, it’s okay. It was years and years ago.” She put a bright smile on her face. “So, you have kids? What kind, how many, tell me all about it.”

It was the right thing to say. Kelly Grace was all sparkles and dimples again. “Oh, yeah, got two, one of each. Well, good Lord, they’re all grown up by now, though-Bobby Jr.’s graduatin’ next week, and Sara Louise is a year behind him.”

“No way!”

“I know, doesn’t seem possible, does it? Seems like it was just yesterday you and me were in high school, and it was me and Bobby and you and…oh, Lord, there I go again. Charlene, I’m just so sorry, I should keep my big mouth-”

“Hey, I told you, it’s okay. It was a long time ago.”

“Yeah…” Kelly Grace’s eyes rested on her, a slight frown making wrinkles appear in all the places Charly had recently begun to study minutely in her own mirror. This is too weird, she thought. How can my best friend have wrinkles? The last time I saw her we were sixteen. Sixteen.

“How ‘bout you?” Kelly Grace asked hesitantly, obviously still feeling uneasy about it. “What all have you been doin’ with yourself? Did you ever…you know?”

“Get married? Have kids?” That, of course, was the biggy. The ol’ sixty-four-thousand-dollar question. “Nope,” said Charly cheerfully, “not yet. Guess I just haven’t had time.”

With that out of the way, Kelly Grace relaxed and settled herself like a nesting hen into the opposite side of the booth, from whence she resumed her artillery barrage of less important questions. “So, what have you been up to? Where’ve you been? Hey, did you ever get to California? I remember you were always talkin’ about goin’ out there.”

“I did.” Charly nodded, her head going up and down like one of those tacky little doggies people used to put in their car windows. “That’s where I live now. I’m an attorney, actually.”

“No way! Get out! You are not!”

“It’s true. I’m a lawyer,” Charly said, her own laughter feeling like rocks rattling inside her chest. “Swear to God: Who’d a’ thought, huh?”

“A lawyer! Oh, my God, the judge musta had a cow when he heard that!”

The laughter died. Charly rested her elbows on the tabletop and pressed interwoven fingers to her lips. After a moment she cleared her throat and said, “He doesn’t know.”

There was absolute silence. Then Kelly Grace leaned forward and said in a hushed voice, “You mean you haven’t…”

“Nope.” Charly shook her head. “Haven’t seen him, haven’t spoken to him. Not in twenty years.”

Kelly Grace’s eyes went wide. “Then you don’t-” She cut herself off and clamped her lips together, while her gaze slipped away and down.

Charly tried laughing it off. “Hey, give me a break, I just got into town. You’re the first person I’ve seen, much less talked to.”

“But you’re going to, right? I mean, well, for heaven’s sake, you are goin’ to go see him, aren’t you?”

“I guess I’m gonna have to,” Charly said dryly. “I’m sure the news will get to him that I’m here.” And probably already had, she thought as the door gave its warning ding, and she glanced around nervously to see who had just come in. A couple of teenagers, nobody she’d know. She shook back her hair, making a conscious effort to unclasp her hands and relax her shoulders. “Actually I was driving around the square trying to get my courage up, and I saw the sign. I wondered if that was you, and I just thought I’d stop in for a minute, say ‘Hey,’ you know, maybe give my nerves a chance to settle a little… Damn, Kelly Grace,” she burst out, “this isn’t gonna be easy!”

Kelly Grace shifted in uneasy sympathy. “I guess not.”

“Hey,” said Charly brightly, “I don’t suppose you’d happen to have a bottle of Black Jack tucked away someplace?”

Kelly Grace put a hand over her eyes and groaned. “Oh, Lord, does that bring back memories! Remember that Fourth of July… Lord, I thought I was gon’ die.”

So many memories, Charly thought. So many years. And maybe…not nearly enough. Because if it still seems like yesterday to me, and to her, then it probably does to everyone else, too.