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"Hey cuz! Happy Birthday! Recognize my voice?"
He instantly placed her Long Island accent as belonging to the cousin he shared a birthday with. "Well, Happy Birthday yourself, old lady!"
"Watch it whippersnapper. Have some respect for your elders," Jan replied. Though they shared the same month and day, she was actually one year older than Tad.
"Jan, it's been years since we've seen one another or even spoken. What prompted this call," Tad asked.
'Well, I tracked you down through your brother Levi. He gave me your number and address. I googled it and guess what?"
"Umm, Google Maps showed you where I live? That's not exactly earth shattering you know. It's pretty much exactly what Google does!"
"Still the smartass I see. What I found out is that the tourist town I booked my vacation in is only about 10 miles from your house. I got in late last night and put calling you on the top of my to do list for today. Do you have plans?" Jan asked.
"Not really. Do you want to get together for lunch? There's a place where you are that has great bison burgers, and lots of other good food if that's not your taste," Tad told her.
"Okay. Say 11:30?"
"That's perfect. I'll see you there!" Tad gave her the name and location of the restaurant and they hung up.
While they hadn't stayed in touch over the past fifty years or so, when they had both attended another relative's wedding about a decade ago they fell right back into the same easy rapport they'd always had.
In addition to having the same birthday, Jan's parents were Tad's godparents. She lived on the Island while he lived upstate but every summer he'd spend at least two week staying with her. And most summers the two families rented a lake house together in Maine.
Tad smiled to himself as he thought back on those days. Jan was always trying to get him to play doctor, so to speak. But he was painfully shy around girls and never let her go any further than listening to each other's heart with her toy stethoscope, always fully clothed.
There were lots of other activities, of course. They had learned to water ski in Maine, put on silly shows for the adults, did a lot of swimming and just general 'stuff' kids did back then.
His recollections sped forward to freshman year in college. A pounding on his door was accompanied by a shouted "Phone!" as the floor shared one payphone. Dorm etiquette dictated that whoever heard it ring answered and tracked down the intended party.
"Hello?" he said tentatively.
"Tad, it's Mom."
"Oh, hi Mom. Is everything okay?" His mother rarely called.
"I'm afraid not, Tad. That worthless wanna be mobster who got your cousin pregnant and then married her shot her twice and then killed himself," his mother explained.
"Oh no! Is she alive? What about the baby?" Tad asked, panic stricken,
"Leah is fine, untouched. Jan was hit in the mouth and out the cheek and in the shoulder. She crawled across the lawn to the neighbor's house who called for help. She'll need reconstructive surgery on her face but thankfully there shouldn't be any permanent damage."
"Okay. Do you have a number for her? I'd like to call." And he did, later on.
Tad arrived at the restaurant right at 11:30. As he told the hostess he was meeting someone she turned to look at a table where a single woman was seated. Tad's eyes followed and he immediately spotted Jan. "Yes, that's her," he told the hostess and headed over.
Jan jumped up when she saw him approaching, rushed over and gave him a giant hug, followed by a kiss on his cheek that actually touched on the side of his mouth. "Tad! I can't believe it! Damn, you look good."
"Look who's talking. I swear you haven't changed a bit since your twenties!" Tad said, honestly. She was about 5'6", maybe 120 pounds, nice large B cup breasts. The only change from her 20s was shorter hair, befitting a woman now in her early 50s.
They sat and, after giving their orders to the waitress, started catching up with one another. Jan had never remarried and Tad had been single for several years, having sworn off marriage long ago in favor of relationships that could end without need for lawyers.
After lunch, Tad gave Jan a guided walking tour of the mock Bavarian town. Originally settled as a logging town due to the plentiful southern yellow pine trees prized for lumber, when over-harvesting led to a complete decline in that business, the town fell on hard times. A single investor purchased nearly all the storefronts on the three block long main street and set about breathing new life in it.
He first reached out to a small town in Bavaria and negotiated a "sisterhood", appropriate due to both being nestled in their respective mountainous regions. He then remodeled the facades of the shops in the chalet style Bavaria is known for. He built a large 'Festhalle" and when fall rolled around advertised a huge Oktoberfest, with music, food, and of course lots of beer. In a few years it became hugely successful, attracting tourists from all over the southeast. Enterprising entrepreneurs rented the storefronts for everything from a cuckoo clock shop to the kind of tacky t-shirt souvenir places found in every tourist town.
"What are we going to do for dinner?" Jan asked.
"Well, you have three choices if we stay here. There's a nice, upscale American restaurant, a rather good and authentic German place, and a very good pizza place," Tad replied.
