In one single instant,everythingcan change....Wouldn't it be great to go back to the time before Pamela got pregnant, before Patrick left for the University of Chicago, before anyone was making any big decisions about sex or college or life in general? Wouldn't it be great to get the whole gang together again, just once? But what it takes for this to happen will change Alice (and the whole gang) forever.
Full of life -- the good, the bad, and the heartbreaking -- the latest Alice book reminds us all just how much can change in an instant.1Planning Ahead
"We've got to do something wild this summer."
Pamela extended her toes, checking the polish, then leaned back in the deck chair and pulled the bill of her cap down a little farther over her forehead.
"Define 'wild,'" said Gwen, eyes closed, hands resting on her stomach.
It was a Sunday afternoon. The Stedmeisters had opened their pool two weeks ago, and Mark had invited the old crew back again for a swim. Not the whole crew, because Patrick had left for summer courses at the University of Chicago and Karen was visiting her grandmother in Maine.
Everyone else had gathered at the picnic table except Liz, Gwen, Pamela, and me. The four of us seemed too lazy to move. We'd played badminton for an hour and a half, then took a swim, and now there was a wonderful breeze that played with my hair. I thought of Patrick.
"I don't meandangerouswild," said Pamela. "I just want to do something spectacular. If not spectacular, then unusual. I want at least one good story to tell when we go back to school."
"Such as?" asked Elizabeth, reaching for her glass of iced tea.
"I don't know. That we visited a nudist colony or something?"
Liz almost dropped her glass. "You're joking."
"Why? Nudity's a natural thing. Don't you want to know what it feels like to play badminton with a breeze touching every square inch of your body?"
Gwen opened her eyes and gave Pam the once-over. "Girl, in the bathing suit you're wearing, the only parts of your body the breeze can't touch are the private parts of your privates."
We laughed.
"You guys want any crab dip before it's gone?" Mark called.
Even if we're not hungry, we make a point of tasting whatever Mrs. Stedmeister puts out for us. She and Mark's dad have been so great all these years about letting us hang out at their pool. They're older than most of the other parents, and I guess they figure that since Mark doesn't have any siblings, they'll do whatever they can to keep his friends around.
We'd filled up on hamburgers earlier, but Gwen padded over to the picnic table, her brown feet pointing outward like a dancer's, her short, shapely legs bringing her back again, dip in one hand, a basket of crackers in the other.
"Well," she said to Pamela, offering the crackers, "you could always get yourself arrested. That would be a first."
"For what?" Pamela asked, considering it.
"Don't encourage her," I said, but who was I kidding? I wouldn't refuse a little excitement, especially with Patrick gone and nothing more for me to do all summer except work at Dad's music store. My cousin's wedding was coming up soon, though, and that would make life more interesting.
"Here's something you all could do," Gwen suggested. "If you're going to be around the third week of July, you could volunteer from four to nine in a soup kitchen. Montgomery County's asking for high school students to take over that week and give the regular volunteers a break."
Jill and some of the others had followed the crab dip back to where the four of us were sitting.
"Whoop-de-doo. Now that's a fun idea," Jill said, rolling her eyes.
"What kind of help do they want?" I asked, ignoring Jill.
"Whatever they need: scrape veggies, set tables, serve food, clean up. We wouldn't have to plan the actual cooking. There will be one adult at each place to supervise that. I'm volunteering
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