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Every year things got fancier and fancier at the Easy Co reunion, it also got noisier, and more crowded, what with all the children and grandchildren that kept being added to the family.
As always, George Luz fluctuated between groups, listening in on their stories and making a sarcastic remark before moving on to the next. As he was doing so he noticed the cookie table, which was a table filled with only cookies, of all kinds, covered in chocolate, with caramel filling, and this very sandy disgusting ones that someone kept insisting on bringing and were never consumed.
As he admired them he tapped his feet to the rhythm of the music the band was playing. Suddenly the tune shifted to that one horrible song…again. He turned around to identify the culprit, which didn’t take long. Guarnere was one of the main organizers of the event, to which everyone was appreciative, however, every year, at least once in the evening he asked the band to play a certain tune.
Bill would then proceed to “sing”, or as Joe Toye called it: “howl in a way that might resemble a song”, but no one ever said anything out of politeness. But this year was different, amongst the silence that had settled a cry could be heard. A child around three kept asking his mom to make his grandpa stop singing. Bill scanned the crowd searching for the voice’s owner, as he did so, he noticed everyone had stopped dancing, to which he laughingly agreed that maybe the band should stick to their original repertoire.
Luz’s chuckles were drowned by the sound of people dancing again. He looked back at the cookies once more, and without taking any walked towards a door in the back of the room where people who didn’t dance sat comfortably on their chairs chatting with their acquaintances.
Very cheery he entered the small room where some of his friends sat at a table that occupied most of the space. Webster, Skip and Penkala were only some of the ones there. With laughter and mimics he recreated the scene he had just witnessed, but the response wasn’t quite what he’d expected. Some guys chuckled, but the rest just smiled.
“What’s going on?” he inquired.
“I was just wondering…” said Skip “if these reunions are really meant for us”.
“Of course they are!” replied Luz “They are called Easy Company reunions, right? And last time I checked we were all part of Easy”.
“Yeah, I guess so…”
Skip didn’t seem convinced, and Penkala sitting next to him seemed to be feeling similarly.
The good mood that Luz had been in just a couple of seconds ago had drifted away.
“Do you think we’ll be able to keep coming here for years on end?” asked Welsh while staring at the bottle in front of him.
“I don’t know”, answered Luz.
“What if we’re attached to something, like a necklace or a picture. If it gets destroyed, do we disappear?” Nixon seemed pretty worried. For the past years he’d taken these gatherings as a way to check on his friends, especially Winters, whom he wanted to make sure was all right and living a happy life. Every year he joked about how Dick had toasted, once again, with a glass of water “seriously, not even to commemorate his fallen friends” he’d add.
On the other hand Skip and Penkala had taken the opportunity to play pranks on Malarkey. A couple of years ago they hid his glasses, making everyone in the ballroom look for them, only to find them three hours later in his own pocket. Penkala swore that for a split second Malarkey looked him in the eyes.
“It’s not possible, he hadn’t put his glasses on yet, and you know he can’t see anything without’em, especially not the like of us, which he can’t see even with them on.” Skip would reply, a bit jealous that it might be true.
Every year had been like that, new members were added to the little room, and the dead reunited from afar with their unknowing friends and family.
But as the population outside grew older, the guys in the little room grew worried. What would happen when everyone outside was gone? Where would they go?
Amidst the silence Luz thought it adequate to voice a thought he’d had on the back of his head all evening.
“Last night demolition of the factory I died in began.” Everyone looked up to pay attention. “I could feel it. It was like part of me was been destroyed. I don’t know what that means. But I’m still here, so I guess we don’t just disappear.”
“Maybe we’re attached to more than one thing, not only objects of sentimental value, but also to our family and friends.” Pondered Webster.
“Maybe…but what happens when they are gone too?” asked Nix.
And with that the room went quiet as the party continued outside.