Reunion

by Megan Scaggs

It was my ten year reunion,
And I’d decided to attend.
To see old familiar faces,
And maybe reconnect with friends.

But I hadn’t been expecting,
The voice I heard from behind me.
It was a ghost from long ago,
That I never thought would find me.

He had been my high school sweetheart,
A boy who promised me the world.
But as I looked him in the eyes,
Those painful memories unfurled.

He’d always had this wanderlust,
That kept him shooting for the stars.
He thought music was his starship,
And it was fueled by his guitar.

He’d even had a record deal,
And his label sent him on tour.
There he forgot where he came from,
Though we all managed to endure.

He asked me how I was doing,
I said I’m doing better now.
I’ve reconciled old decisions,
And I have carried on, somehow.

I said I’d followed his career,
I watched his rise and his descent.
I prayed for his recovery,
After that deadly accident.

He told me, everything still worked,
But he could never be a dad.
Any chance of that was taken.
This revelation made him sad.

His next question was a surprise.
I thought my secret was secure.
He asked about my pregnancy,
His tone becoming quit demure.

I asked him how he knew of that,
He said he’d heard it from a friend.
And still he left, those years ago,
Leaving me all alone to fend.

So he knew what he was leaving,
And never once did he look back.
His future was more important,
Until that shining star went black.

And then he thought of me again.
He saw light through the distortion.
It was a light destined to fade,
When he learned of the abortion.

He walked away a second time,
As my husband brought me some wine.
He asked me how I was doing.
And I told him I would be fine.

He knew what we might talk about,
We’d all been close back in the day.
“Did he ask about his daughter?”
I smiled, not knowing what to say.

I asked if he had been the friend,
Who told about my pregnancy.
He then confessed he was the one.
But it had been in secrecy.

He did it for my happiness,
For he believed in fairytales.
And that is why I married him,
And why the love we share prevails.

I said, over the last ten years,
Was it he who raised my daughter?
He moved on, never looking back,
And it’s you who she calls father.

That man doesn’t have a daughter,
It’s not what he wanted to do.
But you were always there for her,
The only dad she ever knew.

So we visited with old friends,
And caught up on some history.
Then we said a polite goodbye,
And went home to our family.